Larger-Than-Life Sculpture Inspired By Iconic World War II Era Photograph Installed at Custom House Museum

Tuesday, January 10, more than 30,000 pounds of bronze were moved around on the Custom House Museum stairs when a New Jersey-based sculpture installation team proceeded to de-install the existing J. Seward Johnson sculpture “Time for Fun” which depicts Renoir’s “Dance in the Country” and replace it with another by the same artist.

Visitors to the Key West Art & Historical Society’s Custom House Museum will now be greeted by “Embracing Peace,” a 25-foot tall bronze sculpture inspired by a world-famous photo shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt in New York’s Times Square on V-J Day 1945, of a sailor and nurse locked in an immortalized kiss.

Created in 2005 by Johnson, who served in the Navy during the Korean War, “Embracing Peace,” traveled from Memorial Park in Royal Oak, Michigan, to Key West. The installation was planned in conjunction with the centennial anniversary of Naval Air Station Key West and The Key West Art & Historical Society’s Custom House Museum exhibit “The Navy in Key West,” which opens January 13 and runs through December 2017.

“We’re hoping this landmark sculpture will serve as a segue into the museum,” says Society curator Cori Convertito, PhD., regarding the iconic image now placed out front of the building that once belonged to Naval Station Key West.

Convertito emphasizes that the exhibit will be much more than “a nuts, bolts, guns, and battle exhibit,” but will illustrate to visitors of all ages just how intertwined the island of Key West and the U.S. Navy are through a cultural, visual, personal, and regional history presentation.

“These two young, uniformed figures are tantamount to what the Navy’s presence was and still is in Key West,” she says. “It helps demonstrate the dedication young people had in helping their country, which was so important to the country’s war efforts and the ongoing endeavors towards peace and harmony today.”

Tuesday’s installation is the fourth of Johnson’s pieces to grace the Custom House Museum’s steps over the last 9 years, with “God Bless America,” paying homage to painter Grant Wood’s “American Gothic,” being the first.

For more information, contact curator Cori Convertito, PhD at [email protected] or 305.295.6616 x112. Your Museums. Your Community. It takes an Island.

 

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