Seward Johnson Sculptures Returning to City Center New Brunswick

If it wasn’t already clear, Pam Stefanek realized the four hyperrealistic, life-sized sculptures positioned around City Center last year were a big hit when an imaginative New Brunswick resident dressed up as one of them for Halloween.

He drew inspiration from the sculpture of the woman struggling to carry groceries near the corner of Livingston Avenue and George Street, creating a costume complete with a look-alike pocketbook and scarf.

So, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the sculptures from the Seward Johnson Atelier are returning.

Stefanek, the director of New Brunswick City Market, said six sculptures will take up residence starting on May 1. They will enjoy an extended stay, through Nov. 3.

A few of the sculptures will add new wrinkles this year, with art imitating art.

A statue of a girl sitting on a stone will be positioned in Monument Square Park, facing United Methodist Church. On her sketch pad will be an in-progress rendering of the church.

Similarly, there will be a sculpture called “Uninvited Advice” with an artist trying to work despite a critic standing behind her at 391 George St. – the site of the shuttered Starbucks. On the easel will be an image of the Rutgers overpass and Johnson & Johnson Tower, looking down George Street.

There will be a wide array of other sculptures, including a skateboarder near the Hub City Brew House, a newspaper reader near Dunkin, a strolling professor at 75 Baird St. by the Middlesex County Administrative Building’s flagpoles and two mariachi performers at 356 George St.

John Seward Johnson II was born in New Brunswick in 1930, the grandson of Johnson & Johnson co-founder Robert Wood Johnson.

More than 450 of Johnson’s life-size cast bronze figures have been featured in private collections and museums in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, as well as prominent places in the public realm, such as Times Square and Rockefeller Center in New York City, Pacific Place of Hong Kong, Les Halles in Paris, and Via Condotti in Rome, according to the Seward Johnson Atelier website.

He was the founder of Grounds for Sculpture, a 42-acre sculpture park and museum in Hamilton Township. It is home to many of his works that range from sculptures of children at play to an old man lying on the grass.

They all command double-takes, but none more so than “Double Check.” The sculpture of a businessman rifling through his briefcase was installed at Liberty Park, not far from the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11. Firefighters, mistaking the sculpture for a real man, rushed to save him in the wake of the day’s chaos.

A life-like image of a gardener working in Monument Square Park last year prompted puzzled residents to call the city.

“People would call us all the time and say, ‘Who do you have gardening? It doesn’t seem like they are getting very far over there,’ ” Stefanek said. “I would tell them it’s a statue and they were like, ‘What?’ I would tell them again, ‘It’s a statue.’ ”

By: Chuck O'Donnell
Photo Credit: New Brunswick City Market