Kearney - "Walrus" Sculpture of walrus made from car bumpers

John Kearney • American: 1924-2014

Walrus • Car Bumpers 37” x 52” x 29”

You never know who might show up at your yard sale. John Kearney needed a little extra cash for a trip to Italy, so was selling his sculptures in front of his Provincetown, Massachusetts home. A woman eagerly approached and said, “I love your art!” Can we make a trade?” Luckily, a man standing next to him overheard and whispered in Kearney’s ear, “I’d make that trade if I were you.”

Turns out, the woman at the yard sale was Francoise Gilot, Pablo Picasso’s former lover. Kearney didn’t have a clue until the mysterious man whispered in his ear. The trade was made, a Picasso for a Kearney. It made the Babe Ruth trade from Boston to the Yankees look like a fantasy league deal.

He also made a new family friend. The Kearney’s often visited Francoise’s home in Europe, the same home she once shared with Picasso. Francoise even served them lunch on a piece of Picasso’s art, not something many people can say they’ve done.

Kearney loved the unconventional nature of his life, starting with his birth. His parents’ farm in Iowa was on the thin edge of disaster and money was tight. To save hospital costs the family drove to Omaha, Nebraska where his aunt was a nurse. She delivered baby John on her kitchen table and the family promptly headed right back to Iowa. John’s love of animals began on the family farm and carried through his life as he often created animal sculptures from used car parts.

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In fact, his best known works were made by welding together old car bumpers, a practice that started when Kearney’s neighbor’s car broke down. “Why take it to the scrap yard when we can bury it right here?” Kearney dug a hole and rolled the car in, back end first. He then welded on a head and wings to create a giant insect. For Kearney, art started with anything he could get his hands on.

His sculpture Walrus at the Canton Museum of Art is made from old 1950s era bumpers (DeSoto?). He also made large-scale metal sculptures of the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, Dorothy and Toto, on display at Oz Park in Chicago. His sculpture Chromosaurs of a 19-foot-tall, 2-ton dinosaur has become a modern art landmark. Kearney became so well known for using car bumpers people started dropping them off at his house by the truckload. “I don’t know whether I’m going to run out of bumpers or steam first.”

Although cars stopped using metal bumpers in the 1980s, Kearney never ran out of raw materials or ideas until he died in 2014. He had a long life turning one man’s trash into an artist’s treasure.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Purchased by the Canton Museum of Art 74.16

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“John Kearney never saw a material he didn’t like. He made artistic carvings on coconuts while in the Navy during Pearl Harbor.”

2.
“His art career started as a goldsmith making wedding rings, including the one he used to propose to his wife, Lynn. She said yes!”

3.
“Kearney opened the Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago in 1949 and taught young artists there for 50 years.”

4.
“Many of his most famous sculptures are made entirely of welded together car bumpers. No one’s art has a better crash test rating.”

Kearney Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1924

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, at his aunt’s house. His aunt was a nurse and delivered him on her kitchen table. He then went back to the family farm in Iowa where he spent his childhood.

1930

His great grandfather, a member of the Union Army in the Civil War, told him war stories and showed him a bullet lodged in his hip. Kearney became intrigued by all things military.

1931

His mother remarried a traveling salesman. The family moved 18 times throughout his childhood, including stops in Missouri, Albuquerque, Ohio, Detroit, and Chicago.

While in Albuquerque, a beloved art teacher encouraged him to become an artist.

1938

Joined the Navy and was stationed in the South Pacific during Pearl Harbor. He was a sailor and deep sea-diver, and learned how to weld while performing underwater repairs on ships.

1942

Used GI Bill to attend Cranbrook Academy of Art in Detroit. He studied under well-known sculptor, Carl Milles, and also learned painting and jewelry making.

1949

Founded the Contemporary Art Gallery and the Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago. The Workshop provided young artists with studio space and a place to exhibit their artwork. He taught there until it closed in 2009.

1951

Proposed to his girlfriend Lynn with a handmade Peter Pan wedding ring and the two married 40 days later. They had two children, son Daniel and daughter Jill.

1953

Received the Wallace Truman Prize at the National Academy of Design in New York.

1962

Welded a head and wings onto a neighbor’s broken down car to create a giant insect. Hundreds stopped by to see it. From this point on, the majority of his sculptures were made from car bumpers.

1963

He met Francoise Gilot, Picasso’s former lover, while selling sculptures in his front yard in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He traded her one of his sculptures for a Picasso.

Received the Fulbright Award and spent a year teaching art in Italy.

1985

Named a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. He returned in 1992, 1998, and 2003.

1991

Sculpted Chromosaurs, a dinosaur exhibit featuring a 19-foot-tall, 2-ton Tyrannosaurus rex made from car bumpers. It resides at the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum in Grand Prairie, Texas.

1995

His large-scale metal sculpture of the Tin Man was installed at Oz Park in Chicago. He later added the Cowardly Lion (2001), Scarecrow (2005), and Dorothy and Toto (2007).

2014

Died in August at the age of 89.