James Joseph Kearns

"Grimacing Giant"

1956

James Joseph Kearns is an outstanding modern American sculptor, painter and printmaker. Kearns studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, DePaul University and at the University of Chicago from 1946–51. Kearns's first one-man exhibition took place in New York in 1956 and since that time his sculptures, paintings and etchings have been included in exhibitions at the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Whitney Museum in New York. In 2006, the Rider University Art Gallery, Lawrenceville, New Jersey held an exhibition that showcased a retrospective of 50+ Years of James Kearn's drawings and paintings. Museums that have purchased his art include the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. The Fine Art Museum at the Western Carolina University and the Butler Institute of American Art Museum lists an impression of Man on Stilts in their collection. In 1960, Kearns became a professor at the School of Visual Arts, New York. He has also illustrated several important books, including, Can These Bones Live in 1960 and The Heart of Beethoven in 1962.