John Kearney (August 31, 1924 – August 10, 2014) was an American artist, best known for his sculptures made of car bumpers. During his career, Kearney was based out of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Provi ...

. Many of his sculptures are displayed outside of public buildings.

Life

Kearney received his artistic education at the

Cranbrook Academy of Art The Cranbrook Academy of Art, a graduate school for architecture, art, and design, was founded by George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth in 1932. It is the art school of the Cranbrook Educational Community. Located in Bloomfield Hills, Mi ...

in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and the Universita per Stranieri in

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

, Italy. In 1950, he co-founded the Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago. Subsequently, he lived and worked in Italy numerous times, most notably in Rome in 1963 and 1964 while on a Fulbright Award, and in 1985 and 1992 while serving as a visiting artist at the

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo in Rome, Italy. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History 19th century In 1893, a group of American architect ...

. Kearney learned his welding skills as a World War II

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

sailor while performing underwater repair of naval vessels.

Awards

* Fulbright Award to Rome in 1963–64 * Italian Government Grant in 1963–64 * Visiting Artists at America Academy in Rome, 1985 and 1992

Collections that own Kearney's work

* Aon (Standard Oil Building) in Chicago * Detroit Children's Museum * Illinois State Capitol Visitors Center, Springfield, Illinois
Springfield Art Association
Springfield, Illinois * Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon, Illinois * Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago * Ulrich Museum, Wichita, Kansas * Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois
Canton Museum of Art
Canton, Ohio

Solo exhibitions

* New York City at A.C.A. Gallery, 1964 to 1979 * Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1992 to 1997

Outdoor sculpture

In Chicago area * Academy of Science (T. rex) * Aon (formerly the Amoco Building and the Standard Oil Building) (three deer) * Chicago Park District (two life size Horses) * Clark and Deming intersection (two goats) * Roscoe and Elaine Place intersection (two giraffes)(removed) * Cornelia and Elaine Place intersection ("Nanny Goat") (removed) *

Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

, South Entrance (two bronzes) *

, penguin and deer inside an exhibit. * Francis Parker School * Goudy School (double life-size cougar – the School Mascot) *

Lincoln Park Zoo Lincoln Park Zoo, also known as Lincoln Park Zoological Gardens, is a zoo in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois. The zoo was founded in 1868 and is the second oldest zoo in the United States. It is also one of a small number of zoos to offer fr ...

(chromium-plated bull elephant) – the zoo did not take proper care of these sculptures, and they were removed due to damage. * McCormick Seminary, Hyde Park, on University Avenue north of 55th Street (a large ram, named "Herald", pun referring to the ''Hyde Park Herald'' newspaper) * Michigan Avenue

Magnificent Mile The Magnificent Mile (sometimes locally abbreviated to the Mag Mile) is the approximately one-mile-long stretch of Michigan Avenue (Chicago), Michigan Avenue from the Chicago River to Oak Street (Chicago), Oak Street on the Near North Side ...

(

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

) * Museum of Science and Industry (life-size gorilla) *

Oakton Community College Oakton College is a public community college with campuses in Des Plaines, Illinois and Skokie, Illinois. It was established in 1969 in Morton Grove, Illinois and moved to its current locations in 1980. History Oakton College opened in 1969 as ...

* Oz Park (the Tin Man (1995),

Cowardly Lion The Cowardly Lion is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is depicted as an African lion, and like all animals in Oz, he can speak. Although he often self-doubt, doubts himself, the Cowardly Lion no ...

(2001), Scarecrow (2005), and

Dorothy Dorothy may refer to: *Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name. Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Dorothy'' (TV series), 1979 American TV series * Dorothy Mills, a 2008 French movie, sometimes titled simply ''Dorot ...

and Toto (2007) from ''

The Wizard of Oz ''The Wizard of Oz'' is a 1939 American Musical film, musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Based on the 1900 novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum, it was primarily directed by Victor Fleming, who left pro ...

'') * Sedgwick, 1800 block (two horses) * Uptown Hull House (gorilla) * Andersonville Residence (life-size Kodiak bear) Elsewhere * Springfield Art Association • Springfield, IL • Bicentennial Bison (Outside Visual Arts Center) * Dallas Museum of Natural History, Dallas, Texas, and

Ripley's Believe It or Not! ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals with bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' ...

Museum, Grand Prairie, Texas (''Chromosaurs'': Tyrannosaurus rex, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops)
Boys and Girls Club of Fayetteville, Arkansas
(life-size giraffe and gorilla) * Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon, Illinois (one horse) * Ulrich Museum,

Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

, Kansas (''Grandfather's Horse'') * Delano Park,

Delano, Wichita, Kansas Delano is a neighborhood located in Wichita, Kansas, Wichita, Kansas, United States. A mixed commercial and residential area on the west bank of the Arkansas River, it is home to Friends University, Equity Bank Park, and Exploration Place, the S ...

on the

Chisholm Trail The Chisholm Trail ( ) was a stock trail and wagon route used in the post-Civil War era to drive cattle overland from ranches in southern Texas, across the Red River into Indian Territory, and northward to rail stops in Kansas. The trail cons ...

(one of ''Two Steers'') * Maize South High School, Maize Kansas (one of ''Two Steers'')
Hudson Welding and Fabricating
326 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
life sized giraffe known locally as G''erry''

RAM's Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, 2519 Northwestern Ave, Racine, Wi, 53403 two giraffes, a pelican (1960), two goats (Goat 1978 and Nanny Goat 1999), and a standing female nude (Venus of Detroit 1975), are installed outdoors on the grounds at Wustum through August 12, 2021. * Signal Centers (Chattanooga TN) Front of Facility (Horse) - www.signalcenters.org

References

External links

Contemporary Arts Workshop

Location of Outdoor Sculpture in Chicago

Chicago Tribune article on the Goudy School sculpture

Kimball the Horse, located at the Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon, Illinois

History of "Herald [sic
/nowiki> the Ram" at McCormick seminary">ic">History of "Herald [sic
/nowiki> the Ram" at McCormick seminary
[sic">Another version of "Herald [sic
/nowiki> the Ram"] *
Herod, Doug. 2013. The long journey from eyesore to St. Catharines Landmark. St. Catharines Standard, October 4th. 2013.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kearney, John 1924 births 2014 deaths Cranbrook Academy of Art alumni Artists from Chicago Sculptors from Illinois