May 8th through August 7th 2005

BEYOND THE FRAME

Impressionism Revisited: The Sculptures of J. Seward Johnson, Jr.

Lifescale Sculptures Inspired by Impressionist Masterpieces Have Sole New York Viewing
at Nassau County Museum of Art

Sponsored by Dr. Harvey Manes

This Exhibition is Based on the Exhibition
Originally Presented by the Corcoran
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

I use my art to convince you of something that isn't real.
You laugh at yourself because you were taken in,
and in that change of your perception,
you become vulnerable to the piece and
intimate with it in a certain way.
- J. Seward Johnson, Jr.

One of the most unusual exhibitions ever presented at NCMA, Beyond The Frame, Impressionism Revisited: The Sculptures of J. Seward Johnson, Jr., comes directly from a record-breaking run at Washington D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art. This exhibition will only be seen in the New York area at Nassau County Museum of Art.

The greatest masterpieces of Impressionism come alive through the incomparable works of sculptor, J. Seward Johnson, Jr. In Beyond the Frame, Johnson appropriates two-dimensional Impressionist works and reimagines them in his three-dimensional format using such works as Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, Manet's Olympia and Van Gogh's Bedroom, among others as his inspiration. His highly-detailed superrealistic interpretations of these works present a convincing, even arresting, sense of immediacy, inviting us to physically interact with his art, walking around and through the installations so as to examine the environments from different vantage points.

The exhibition fills all of our galleries and also extends outdoors onto our lush grounds and gardens. Pondering the Benefits of Exercise, Johnson's recreation of Renoir's Rower's Lunch, is planned to be sited so that the museum's pond serves as the work's watery backdrop, and a hillside is to be the setting for On Poppied Hill, Johnson's interpretation of two works by Monet: Figures on Hilltop and Poppies.

Originally a painter, J. Seward Johnson, Jr. turned his talents to sculpture in 1968. His famed life-size cast bronze figures have been exhibited at major international museums and have been seen in such prominent public settings as Rockefeller Center in New York City and Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver. They are also to be found in private collections throughout the world. Johnson's celebrated works, detailed down to the buttons and folds of the each sculpture's "clothing," have been written about in important art journals as well as the Smithsonian Magazine, The New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe.