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Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ    2012-2013
Grounds For Sculpture is a 35-acre (140,000 m2) sculpture park and museum located in Hamilton, NJ. Founded in 1992 by John Seward Johnson II, the venue was intended to be dedicated to promoting an understanding of and appreciation for contemporary sculpture by organizing exhibitions, publishing catalogues, and offering a variety of educational programs and special community events. In July 2000, it became a nonprofit organization open to the public.
Comprising over two hundred and forty large-scale contemporary sculptures, the venue includes works by Seward Johnson, as well as renowned and emerging American and international artists. The park's outdoor collection grows by fifteen sculptures annually. Outdoor works are selected to augment indoor exhibitions, to add new artists to the sculpture park, and to complement the landscaped environment.
Taking seriously both words in "sculpture garden", efforts are made to carefully integrate and grow many trees, grasses, and flowers to augment the installed works. The living portion of an exhibit may change dramatically throughout the year.
'Unconditional Surrender' is a series of sculptures by Seward Johnson resembling a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 'V-J Day in Times Square', but said by Johnson to be based on a similar, less well known, photograph 'Kissing the War Goodbye' by Victor Jorgensen. Both photographs were of the same V-J Day embrace of a woman in a white dress by a sailor on August 14, 1945, but from a different angle. On the day after the images were taken by the two photographers, the one taken by Jorgensen was published in the New York Times. Eisenstaedt's better known photograph, 'V-J Day in Times Square' was published in Life. The Jorgensen photographic image does not extend low enough to include the lower legs and shoes of the subjects, revealed in Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photograph, that are represented identically in the statue.
In 'Employee Shower' by Carole Feuerman (2006), figure is caught up in the moment, and in the action of taking a shower. The figure is put on display for the audience and is oblivious to their presence. Feuerman states that the young employee is captured in a moment of relaxation after a long day of work. It is, as though the ‘Employees Only’ sign on the door of the bathroom is only a suggestion. Through the shared experience of the viewers, one woman’s private moment becomes a public testimonial to the calming and purifying abilities of water.
'Copyright Violation!!' depicts a portrait of the artist Claude Monet (1840-1926) as he paints the sculpture by Johnson entitled 'If It Were Time', which is in turn based on Monet’s painting entitled 'Terrace at Sainte-Adresse'. When an edition of If It Were Time was on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art during Johnson’s exhibition, Beyond the Frame (September 2003 - January 2004) it included this portrait of the French artist 'violating' Johnson’s copyright. Through this installation the viewer is playfully confronted by the question of what constitutes an original work of art.
Seward Johnson's 'Were You Invited?' is based upon French Impressionist Pierre Auguste Renoir’s nineteenth-century masterpiece, 'The Luncheon of the Boating Party'. In this specially designed and landscaped environment, viewers can actually step into the scene and mingle with the diners. In addition to the members of the Impressionist’s boating party are four figures seated around another table at the far end of the tableau. Joined in convivial conversation are realistic representations of sculptor Johnson himself with artists Bill Barrett, Red Grooms, and Andrzej Pitynski. A dashing character in period costume brandishes his cane and addresses those at the table asking, 'Were you invited?' Phillip Bruno, collector and art gallery director, posed for this gentleman keeping out the party crashers.
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