Grounds For Sculpture (GFS) – Part 1

Where is it located: Hamilton Township, Mercer County, NJ

What is it? It is a huge (42 acre) sculpture park and museum founded by John Seward Johnson II in 1992. It is now a nonprofit organization and is open to the public, but at a fee (which I personally think is steep). If you are not a member of GFS, you must get a timed entry ticket $20 for adults per visit. It contains a collection of sculptures by Seward Johnson and by many others and like all museums the collection and even the location of the artwork keeps changing.

What are the sculptures made of? Mostly metal and stone, but there are also ones made of wood, glass, ceramic and mixed media. 

Who is GFS for? Anyone that is interested in sculptures, modern contemporary art and most importantly don’t mind the imitation of works by other popular artists. The park is huge, well-maintained and is a great place to walk around. The park does contain a few NSFW art, some prominently placed and some hidden. None of these are on my website. The park is accessible to people of all backgrounds, as long as they can afford the entrance fee. For a family with 2 grown up kids the entrance tickets costs $60. To be honest, I did not recognize any of the artists that were featured in the park, but that did not stop me from enjoying the artworks. Seward Johnson was familiar because a couple of his works are featured in the Princeton downtown and I have seen them. If you were are at the Met admiring Monet’s Garden at Saint Adresse, and wondered how I wish this painting was recreated in 3D? If yes, GFS is for you. 

Did you Know? The site where GFS stands now was once the Trenton Speedway and is also the former site of the New Jersey Fairgrounds? When Seward Johnson  submitted his proposal to convert the Speedway to a sculpture garden, his business case stated in clear terms the grounds for building a sculpture park. It also sparked the aha moment for the name of the park itself. He was so taken by the pun that he named it Grounds for Sculpture. Just Kidding. I wish that this really happened. It would make for a great backstory.  

Inside GFS next to the bridge over the lily pond (another tribute to Monet) is a restaurant called the Rat’s Restaurant. Why Rat? Apparently, Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows happens to be Seward Johnson’s favorite book and Ratty was his favorite character. The waterfall cover picture shows the Rat’s Restaurant in the background.

Family Secret

Artist: Seward Johnson

Material: Bronze

Inspired by Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Two Sisters ‘On the Terrace’ (1879).

If you want to see Renoir’s painting you have to travel to the Art Institute at Chicago. In the original painting, the backdrop was of the town of Chatou, where the artist spent his spring time in the year 1881. The basket in front of the young woman has balls of sewing thread in various colors. An interesting note from the Institute: the colors of the balls of thread are the ones that Renoir used to paint the rest of the painting. In other words, the basket is the artist’s illustration of his own painting palette. Ingenious, if this was true. Like the color code legend that you see in the painting by number sets.

My uncle is a photographer by profession, now retired. I remember his ground rule for portrait photography – never have the subjects look straight at the camera. He will do Mona Lisa like photos as an exception than a rule. Kids generally fell under the exception criteria. He must have taken his cues from impressionists like Renoir. 

God Bless America

Artist: Seward Johnson

Material: Metal (aluminum) & wood

Like many of the other Seward Johnson’s works, this too was “inspired” by Grant Wood’s iconic ‘American Gothic’. And like the Renoir painting, this too is featured in the Art Institute of Chicago.

The original painting made its debut in 1930 during the Great Depression. The story goes that Grant was traveling through the town of Eldon in Iowa, when he saw an old house from the 1880s in what is called the Carpenter Gothic style. His first impression of the house was that it was outdated and so were the people that lived in that house. American Gothic was the term he used to describe those outdated occupants of the house and used that as the title for his painting as well.

Was the painting symbolic of something? You see, the funny thing about these artsy folks is that they don’t provide any detailed notes about their works. And this goes all the way to da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. So we are left to speculate, fill in the gaps ourselves. It can make for a fun exercise on a dull afternoon when you have nothing else to do. I have not found mine yet. If you did, please leave your stories in the comments.

What is noticeable straight away is their looks, devoid of any emotion. That cold stare of the old man can make you uncomfortable after a while.

What is noticeable if you look a little deep is the duplication of the 3-pronged pitch fork on his overalls, with the 3^rd prong on the tool merging with the first prong on his overall. The top window, strangely enough, looked like one. Wait a minute? The patterns on the curtains are those in the woman’s apron?

And the cactus plants on the window sill? Does that mean anything?

Did you know? Grant Wood submitted this to the Art Institute of Chicago as his entry for the Annual exhibition. It was accepted, but only won the Bronze medal. Are you thinking the same thing? Who won the Gold and Silver? Interestingly, the Gold and Silver medalists have long been forgotten. 

The model for the painting was Grant Wood’s sister Nan Wood and the old man in the painting was a dentist Dr. B.H. McKeeby. They posed separately for the painting!!

If it Were Time (Monet)

Artist: Seward Johnson

Material: Metal: bronze, aluminum

This is another of Seward Johnson’s recreation of Claude Monet’s painting “Jardin à Sainte-Adresse” (1867). The original panting hangs at the Met, NYC. In the recreation of the painting, Johnson’s location choice and the use of Deadman’s Lake as a replacement to the English Channel is clever. Monet had used the rule of thirds, with each thirds of the painting (well, not literally) representing different levels – the sky, the sea and the land.

The recreation at GFS is a very close representation of the original painting and includes all the props that Monet must have used as the source for his painting, including the sailboat with three sails and the couple in it. We don’t get to see the woman in the chair with the umbrella in the painting or the faces of the young couple standing at the far side of the garden near the edge of the water. When recreating it as a sculpture, Johnson had to go that extra mile to construct all the characters in sufficient detail. He could have taken the easy route but he did not. The pictures in this blog are his version of the characters in the painting.

King Lear I

Artist: Seward Johnson

Material: Cupronickel