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John Kearney
Giraffe, ca.1979, Steel
Private collection
Photography: Jon Bolton, Racine
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The pair of giraffes and a nanny goat were once familiar sights on Elaine Place in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood on the city's north side. For a long period of time, they were installed outside a residential property belonging to the sculptures' owners. When that apartment building was sold to a new owner, Kearney's giraffes were not included in the sale. The pieces were placed in storage, in need of a new home. Their removal was covered in depth by the Chicago area media in November 2012 because these animal sculptures were embraced and cherished by the neighborhood residents, who often decorated the works for specific holidays.
The pieces are now on loan to RAM from a private collection. The exhibition of these works in Racine was arranged and facilitated by Chicago area art dealer and consultant, Jeffrey Kraft of JL Kraft Fine Art.
"Wisconsin residents always welcome Chicagoans when they travel here for vacations and getaways. We are pleased the giraffes and their friends will be spending time with us on our grounds at RAM's Wustum Museum as they vacation in our state," said Bruce W. Pepich, Executive Director and Curator of Collections at Racine Art Museum.
The six sculptures, which have recently been restored, are placed in different locations throughout Wustum's 13-acre grounds, which include a one-acre formal garden designed in the 1950s by the noted Wisconsin landscape architect Alfred L. Boerner (1900-1955). Boerner was also the architect of the Boerner Botanical gardens constructed in Milwaukee County in the 1930s. The Wustum gardens are also home to sculptures by Milton Hebald and Anna Hyatt Huntington that create a dialogue with Kearney's pieces.
The sculptor, John Kearney, was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1924, but has spent much of his life working in Chicago. Kearney studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and in Italy. He is the co-founder of the Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago, which operated from 1949 until 2009. Kearney is known for creating large-scale figurative works-often depicting animals-out of automobile bumpers or bronze. His works can be found in the permanent collections of: the Canton Art Institute, Ohio; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; Ft. Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana; Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma; and RAM. Kearney has four sculptures in Chicago's Oz Park:
The Tin Man(1995), Cowardly Lion (2001), Scarecrow(2005) and Dorothy and Toto(2007), celebrating L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, who at one time lived a few miles east of the park's location.
Located in the northwest section of the city, RAM's Wustum Museum is just two miles away from the Racine Art Museum in downtown Racine. The grounds are open for public touring and enjoyment whenever the museum is open.
