If you live in South Jersey, you’ve probably seen at least one sculpture by John Giannotti. The Haddonfield resident has about 24 outdoor sculptures on display around the world, with several in South Jersey. Giannotti, originally from New York City, has lived in Haddonfield for 10 years.
He started teaching at Rutgers University in Camden in 1970 and was head of the fine arts department. He taught an international studies program as well. Giannotti started out as a painter. His father was a sign painter and his workshop was like a playground for the child.
“I started making art at an incredibly young age,” Giannotti said.
He still paints, but mostly does sculpture these days. Giannotti said he is not a gallery artist, meaning he does not create a series of works with the same theme. Instead, he hops around and works on whatever strikes his fancy.
Giannoti said he finds sculpture “the most interesting work possible” and that every new commission he gets opens an entire new world for him.
Being a sculptor is similar to being a features writer for a newspaper because you have to become a mini expert on that subject in a very short period of time, he explained.
“My work in my studio is never the same,” Giannotti said, noting if he were in a gallery, he would be expected to produce a continuous collection of work. “I just don’t find that exciting.”
He left Rutgers in 2001 because he wanted to devote more time to creating monumental sculptures. However, Giannotti still does some teaching in Philadelphia, Connecticut and New York.
Next spring, he is going back to Rutgers for an honors course on the art and architecture of Italy. In the middle of the semester, he will take students on 12-day trip to Rome, Florence and Venice. That kind of trip is more affordable for his students than a full semester abroad.
Giannotti said most of his outdoor sculptures are in bronze because of its lasting quality. While he has carved marble and alabaster, he considers himself a modeler in clay because it allows for better variety than working in stone.
And he has no favorite piece but is encouraged by the popularity of some of his work with the public, “which is really what the work is about.”
“The artist can get pleasure out of making something and satisfaction out of doing it well, but if there is a really good public response, then it really becomes meaningful,” Giannotti said.
He said the statues that draw the most positive response are the Hadrosaur in Haddonfield and the Matthew Henson statue at the Maritime Museum in Camden.
“They’ve sort of made a place for themselves,” Giannotti said. “The ones that give me the most pleasure are the ones that have a story to them, a history to them and can communicate in some way with people.”
Giannotti said he tries to express three different communications with his work.
First, is the communication between him and the work of art. Second, is the sculpture communicating with itself, which is why he likes to sculpt pieces with more than one character.
The Henson piece shows a dog, King, looking up at his master. And, the work at Sisters of Infant Jesus on Kresson Road in Cherry Hill includes a little girl looking up at a nun.
And, third, there is the communication between the work of art and the public.
He said he was more concerned about the response the Hadrosaur piece would get than the Henson.
“You’re putting up something brand new in a town that is not used to such things,” Giannotti said. “The reception that it got was pretty astounding.”
He said the dinosaur piece was made for kids, who love it.
Also, with outdoor pieces, people don’t need a background in art history to appreciate them, he said.
Giannotti said the project he’s currently working on may get the best response ever because it is a sculpture of World War II icon Rosie the Riveter. The piece, which is half done, will be installed in Woodridge (near the Meadowlands) in January. Woodridge was home of Curtiss Wright airplane manufacturing plant in World War II where many women worked.
Giannotti said New Jersey Transit wanted a new sculpture for a new station and solicited input from residents and they chose Rosie the Riveter.
He said he made his first sculpture in college — he had done mostly painting up until that point — in what he called a “crazy man’s studio.”
The teacher, at the University of Buffalo, would rake his fingers over the clay if he didn’t like the sculptures his students were working on and tell them to start over again.
“He had some incredible standards so I learned a lot from him,” Giannotti said, noting the medium he used at first was clay.
And, when he works in bronze, he creates a steel armature skeleton and adds mesh for clay.
“I try working from life as much as possible,” Giannotti said. “When you’re working on a sculpture it’s like working on literally hundreds of portraits.
“Every time you turn a fraction of an inch you get a different profile,” he added. “You need lots of information.”
Giannotti said his creative process is “almost exactly the opposite of what you would think it is.”
He said he thinks of the ending first and the venue where the piece will be installed.
When teaching full-time Giannotti had the luxury of being creative because selling art was not his main source of income. With commissions the ideas are given to him.
When you’re operating your own business which is a creative business it’s easy to fall into a funk,” he said. “I like to set schedules for myself.”
So which artists does Giannotti revere?
“There are so many artists who have influenced me that the list would go on forever,” he said, noting his favorites range from classical artists to avant garde.
Giannotti, who plays in a jazz quartet, said eclectic music also inspires him. He listens to a diverse a group of musicians like Handel, Pink Floyd, and Vampire Weekend.
“I listen to everything and it all has a different effect on me,” he said.
