J. Seward Johnson, Jr.

Seward Johnson (born 1930), also known as J. Seward Johnson, Jr., is an American sculptor known for his trompe l'oeil bronze painted sculptures.

Examples of his work include:

• The Awakening (1980), perhaps his largest work, a 70-foot five-part sculpture located at Haines Point in Washington, DC,
• Hitchhiker (1983), a statue along the side of a road leading away from the campus of Hofstra University,
• Allow Me (1984), a statue of man holding an umbrella, located in Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon, and
• Déjeuner Déjà Vu (1994), located at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, a three-dimensional recreation of Edouard Manet's painting, Le déjeuner sur l'herbe.

He founded the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture , an educational, non-profit art casting and fabrication facility, in 1974.

He was also one of the disinherited heirs to the Johnson & Johnson Corporation fortune, notorious for their very public contesting of their father's will, which left nearly all of his half-billion-dollar fortune to his wife of twelve years, a former servant. The dispute was written about in Undue Influence: The Epic Battle for the Johnson & Johnson Fortune (1993, ISBN 0688064256).

Johnson's grandson Jamie produced and directed a documentary, Born Rich (2003), which premiered at Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO to generally favorable reviews.

External links

• The sculptor's website
• Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture