COVER STORY: SCULPTURES ON THE SQUARE

Troy Main Street is proud to announce the upcoming art exhibition entitled Sculptures on the Square.  In the spring and summer of 2003, Downtown Troy, Ohio will showcase, for the first time in this region of the U.S., the sculptures of world-renowned artist J. Seward Johnson, Jr.  The twenty figures will be positions on the sidewalks of the historic business district. 

These life-sized bronze figures represent people of all ages engaged in day-to-day activities… a woman walking her dog; two people on a park bench; a child reading a book in the grass.  Their routine poses make them a novel yet natural selection for a public art display.  Each life-like sculpture displays intricate detail, from visible stitching on clothing to the drips on a child’s ice cream cone.

The artist, J. Seward Johnson, Jr., is the multi-millionaire grandson of one of the founding brothers of the Johnson & Johnson health care products corporation.  For some years, he has owned and operated a fully equipped and operational bronze foundry in Mercerville, New Jersey where he creates and supervises the casting of his own work.  Johnson is a sculptor, not a maker of plaster casts of living people.  He models his figures and goes to extraordinary lengths to duplicate the fabrics of their clothes and the drape of the fabrics on their flesh.  In both fabric and flesh, the close observer will notice a fineness of detail not seen in other bronze sculpture.  That comes from the state of the art he has brought to the casting and patinization (the coloring process) of his own art and has generated the fineness of detail that sets his work apart from other bronze sculpture.

Johnson has successfully brought public sculpture down from its pedestal of the past and out from its obscurity of the present to encounter, entertain, and engage the minds of his fellow citizens.  Some 200 of Seward Johnson’s works are exhibited internationally in permanent placements or on extended loan.  The permanent purchase of one of his pieces can range from $70,000 to $300,000.  In recent years, the Santa Monica based firm, Sculpture Placement, Ltd. has arranged for the traveling, temporary exhibition of collections of 15 to 20 sculptures in major European cities as well as in the U.S.   Domestically, Johnson’s works have been shown in temporary exhibitions primarily throughout New England.  This exhibition has never before been staged in Ohio.  The Fitton Center for Creative Arts in Hamilton, Ohio, enjoys a permanent public placement of a Seward Johnson sculpture.

The Sculptures on the Square exhibition in Troy opens with a public celebration on the evening of Friday, May 9, 2003.  The sculptures will remain on display through the end of July 2003.  Brochures will be available for self-guided walking tours of the exhibit through Troy Main Street, the Miami County Visitors Bureau, and most downtown businesses.  This exhibit, made possible by the Troy Foundation, is presented by Troy Main Street in partnership with the City of Troy.

Reference:  “An Essay on Seward Johnson,” by Frank Getlein. 

For further information about the sculptures contact:

Sculpture Placement, Ltd.
Suite A-6
2525 Michigan Avenue
Santa Monica, CA  90404
Phone:  310-264-2400
Fax:  310-264-2403