John Ahearn (born 1951) is an American sculptor. He is best known for the

public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

and

street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant graff ...

he made in

South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...

in the 1980s.

Life and art

Ahearn grew up in

Binghamton, New York Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

, with his twin brother

Charlie Ahearn Charlie Ahearn (born 1951) is an American film maker living in New York City. Although predominantly involved in film and video art production, he is also known for his work as an author, freelance writer, member of Colab, and radio host. He is m ...

, who is a

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

. John went to

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

where he discovered art. After trying painting, he started making life casts in 1979 while with

Colab Colab is the commonly used abbreviation of the New York City artists' group Collaborative Projects, which was formed after a series of open meetings between artists of various disciplines. History Colab members came together as a collective in ...

, a

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

artists’ collective. He made some live life casts at ''

The Times Square Show ''The Times Square Show'' was an influential collaborative, self-curated, and self-generated art exhibition held by New York artists' group Colab (aka Collaborative Projects, Inc) in Times Square in a shuttered massage parlor at 201 W. 41st and 7t ...

'' in 1980. In the 1980s, while he participated in

art world The art world comprises everyone involved in producing, commissioning, presenting, preserving, promoting, chronicling, criticizing, buying and selling fine art. It is recognized that there are many art worlds, defined either by location or alte ...

venues like

Brooke Alexander Gallery The Brooke Alexander Gallery is an art gallery in New York City founded in 1968 by Brooke and Carolyn Alexander in a storefront on East 68th Street. It is a member of The Art Dealers Association of America and the International Fine Print Dealers ...

and

, he also focused his art and life on

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

after going to the

and working on the sidewalk in front of

Fashion Moda Fashion 时髦 Moda МОДА, whose name comes from “fashion” in English, Chinese, Spanish and Russian, colloquially referred to as Fashion Moda, started as a cultural concept guided by the idea that art can be made by anyone, anywhere. Fashion ...

, casting whoever volunteered. He made two copies of every cast: one for himself and the other for the sitter/subject. Ahearn has regularly worked with

Rigoberto Torres Rigoberto Torres (born 1960) is a sculptor who was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico and worked in New York City, before moving to Florida where he currently lives and works. Torres began working in a factory where religious figures were cast, produc ...

. Torres first assisted Ahearn and then became his equal collaborator. After a decade of intense cooperation, they have been occasionally working together and sometimes alone. Between 1981 and 1985, Ahearn, together with Torres, created four sculptural murals for the sides of tenement buildings: ''We Are Family'', ''Life on Dawson Street'', ''Double Dutch'', and ''Back to School''. They depict everyday life in the neighborhood. Ahearn's 1991 survey of portraits of ordinary people was called ''South Bronx Hall of Fame''. In 2017, his recent casts were installed on walls on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

. He is represented by Alexander and Bonin Gallery in New York City.

Public Art

The Bronx

John and Rigoberto have sculpture installed on the exterior walls of buildings throughout The Bronx. * "Double Dutch," 1981-2 is located on Kelly Street and Intervale Ave. * "Life on Dawson St.," 1981–82 on Longwood Ave and Dawson St. * "We Are Family" is on Southern Blvd. facing 156th St. * There are also other casts installed outside

The POINT Community Development Corporation The POINT Community Development Corporation is a non-profit community development corporation dedicated to youth development, culture, and the economic revitalization of the Hunts Point neighborhood of the South Bronx, from which it takes its n ...

at 940 Garrison Ave.

The South Bronx bronzes

In 1989, Ahearn received the commission to make sculptures for the 44th Police Precinct in Bronx. He thought of

Paseo de la Reforma Paseo de la Reforma (translated as "Promenade of the Reform") is a wide avenue that runs diagonally across the heart of Mexico City. It was designed at the behest of Emperor Maximilian by Ferdinand von Rosenzweig during the era of the Secon ...

, but instead of heroes, he decided to immortalize people he knew. Ahearn made bronze statues of three black people from his South Bronx neighborhood: Raymond and his pit bull, Daleesha and her roller skates, and Corey and his boom box and basketball. The statues were installed in 1991. Faced with protests from black bureaucrats on one hand and black neighbors on the other, who believed that the subjects did not adequately represent the community, Ahearn removed the statues five days after their installation. The South Bronx bronzes inspired

Jane Kramer Jane Kramer (born August 7, 1938) is an American journalist who is the European correspondent for ''The New Yorker''; she has written a regular "Letter from Europe" for twenty years. Kramer has also written nine books, the latest of which, ''Lone ...

to write a long essay in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' about Ahearn and others involved in the controversy, about art, race and society, which she expanded into a book, ''Whose Art Is It?'', in 1994. The bronzes now stand in the

Socrates Sculpture Park Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor museum and public park where artists can create and exhibit sculptures and multi-media installations. It is located one block from the Noguchi Museum at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in th ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

References

External links