Seward Johnson Sculptures in Trenton

I like to call this, sightseeing in my backyard.

This past year I had a "Plus 1" membership to Hamilton's Grounds for Sculpture, a place that was created by J. Seward Johnson to showcase his sculptures, and expanded to include art by many other artists. My favorite sculptures have always been his works. He has a few different themes, but they always include people. He is perhaps most famous for his statues depicting ordinary people, such as the postman, or a man reading a newspaper. He has another series I love -- reimagining classic paintings as 3-D statues.

We have stumbled upon his statues in the oddest of places. The first time we saw an exhibit outside of GFS was eight years ago when we went into NYC for Manhattanhenge, which was a year after his retrospective exhibit at GFS. Then four years ago while on a day trip to Spring Lake, NJ. Over the hears, we have stumbled on others.

This summer the Trenton Downtown Association has an exhibit of nine of his ordinary people statues in the downtown area. On the first summer evening after the heatwave ended, Don and I drove into the capital city to see if we could find the statues. Armed with what I gleaned from a Bucks County Herald story (ironic, since there is also an installation this summer in Bucks County, but THIS article did not reference that) we found seven of the nine. Here are pictures of them. Note, the newspaper being read references a 2021 story of a Trenton Olympian (Athung Mu). Seward Johnson died in March 2020 as the pandemic was starting. Most were located on or around Warren Street, with the the postman in front of City Hall being the farthest from the center.

Two of the tourists are wearing Great Adventure shirts

We plan to visit the exhibits in Hopewell, NJ and Lower Makefield Township, PA this month. 

UPDATED: I went on a Trenton Downtown Association (TDA) tour of the Seward Johnson sculptures in Trenton today. It started by the sculpture I did not find. Ralph, our Grounds for Sculpture docent, confirmed there are only eight different sculptures.

When I arrived about 10 minutes late it seemed they had just divided into two groups: a large group of younger people, and an small group with retired white people. I stayed with the small group. One man who recently led tours by TDA of the east and west sides of Trenton asked if Seward Johnson (the sculptor) asked people what they thought about his sculptures, for instance, did this one stationed just outside Warren Street Plaza where older black men were playing chess come across as too judgmental (it is a white businessman holding a dirty rag above a trash with the barest of touches and is titled, "Holier than Thou"). The artist passed away in March 2020. Placement has a lot to say about what people might think of the sculpture. Someone commented they read a study where a full body cardboard cutout of a police officer in a store results in a significant reduction of shoplifting. Would this sculpture encourage people to pick up their trash? I did not see any litter near the statue (nor in it for that matter).

We highjacked our docent's well prepared speech. Me, by being familiar with the sculptures (in part because I would read the signs before he would tell us when it was made, and correcting him when he was wrong), the other docent by pointing out other things of historical interest, a woman who grew up in Trenton reminiscing about how great the place was before the factories moved out. Even though we were a small group, our docent didn't stand a chance.

At the end he pointed out photographer Jon Naar's former home (he died in 2017), and I added I knew his phone number because he ended up with our old phone number when he moved to Trenton. That kind of hijacking. I was surprised more people in the group didn't know him because the British WWII vet was a fixture in town.

Our group

A mural painted in 2006 to
commemorate the reading of
the Declaration of Independence
near the site where it happened

Nicole was taking areal shots
so I thought I'd try one, too

The Alexander Douglass House
was moved three times before
settling here next to Passage Theater
(the group debated was it 5 or 6 times,
but I read the sign)

Mill Hill Park