Jim Gary - International Traveling Exhibition Launched

International Traveling Exhibition Launched

These sculptures provided a unique display that became Jim Gary's hallmark by the early 1970s and soon it became the traveling exhibition, Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs, which appealed to toddlers through grandparents. Some of his signature sculptures in the exhibition exceeded sixty feet and Gary frequently painted them in bright colors using automobile paints. They were often transported to exhibitions on huge, open flatbed trucks, fascinating fellow travelers on the roads. Impromptu parades formed as drivers followed the dinosaurs to their destination or a stopping point, where people milled around the trucks asking questions and admiring the sculptures.

In 1979 the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia contracted with Gary for an exhibition of his sculptures. It is the oldest institution of its kind in the entire hemisphere. The implications of their acceptance of his work as interesting to scientists and their audiences as well as to art lovers and popular culture audiences set Gary on a course for his career that garnered invitations from all over the world through marketing targeted to diverse types of museums and venues. Steve Miller of the New York Sun noted in his news breaking obituary in 2006 that the museum exhibit at the academy brought national attention to Jim Gary. In 1982 his sculpture was hosted by Carnegie.

Once asked why he built all of the enormous dinosaur sculptures, the typically quiet sculptor responded, "Because people like them." The huge crowds who flocked to his exhibits demonstrated their immense popularity. Grinning Jim Gary birds, critters, and dinosaurs have been featured in articles and on the covers of magazines from Smithsonian and Sculpture Review (publication of the National Sculpture Society) to National Geographic World (now called, National Geographic Kids) and Time. His work has been featured in textbooks, encyclopedias, educational videos, newspapers, on the Internet, and on television shows around the world. In January 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that "one of his works, Stegosaurus, is included in Alphabet Animals, a children's book by Charles Sullivan that includes depictions of animals by John James Audubon, Alexander Calder, and Marc Chagall." All of the letters of the alphabet were taught using works of fine art through illustrations or professional photographs of artworks. "S" was taught with Gary's green dinosaur, Stegosaurus.

After the display became the permanent Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs exhibition, it traveled internationally to museums and universities; was used as sets for films, plays, and operas; was presented as exhibits for national auto shows and racing events; and was presented as landscape displays in the most elegant of botanical gardens, such as Longwood Gardens on the Pierre S. du Pont estate.

The premier research and development center for revolutionary technologies, Bell Laboratories, booked a private exhibition of fifty of Gary's sculptures in 1981 for the atrium lobby of their Holmdel facility for the benefit of its employees, as the first in a diversified art program planned to provide the enhancement of the environment and enrichment and cultural benefits for the employees and the visitors to the center. A well-publicized reception for the opening of the solo show at the corporation was attended by the family and friends of the staff.

The exhibition was booked for a tour of Japan that began in April 1984. The poster displayed to the right was for the opening exhibition at a national museum in Tokyo that lasted through May, before making a six-month tour to museums in other Japanese cities. Posters were distributed in the cities that were included in the tour and they were displayed in buses, trains, and other public places to announce the exhibition in each museum.

This exhibition opened for Jim Gary's unique four-month solo show of his sculpture at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. on April 12, 1990 and, according to the museum director, drew record-breaking attendance to the museum.

Commissioned work and fees for the exhibitions of his work that were so heavily attended became his mainstay. His gallery was closed in favor of marketing through his studio. Signature sculptures of Gary's fine art were among the works displayed in these solo shows and tours, attracting many commissions for private collections. Selected works offered for sale sometimes accompanied the permanent exhibition as it was booked for displays, shows, and exhibits.

A four-month-long museum solo show of his sculpture exhibition was held from July–November 1985 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California. This exhibition was also used as the setting for significant portions of the 1986 film, Howard the Duck, a science fiction comedy produced by George Lucas.

In 1993 the award-winning Nicky Silver play, Pterodactyls, featured Jim Gary sculptures in its sets when it opened in Manhattan.

When the state of New Jersey held the gala opening of its first major science museum, the Liberty Science Center, just across the harbor from lower Manhattan on January 28, 1993, the entire first floor exhibition space was devoted to what the museum director called "the spectacular dinosaur sculptures made by... Jim Gary".

A Jim Gary dinosaur is in the collection of Ripley's Believe It or Not!, which displays the sculpture in its museums and features the Gary "Stegosaurus" in its publications. Ripley first exhibited it in their museum in Daegu, Korea and the sculpture travels to other locations.

Many fledgling nonprofit organizations raising funds to build museums and creating parks for children held an exhibition of Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs by covering the expense of the complicated shipping alone, as he donated his normal fees to the cause. Some were able to raise enough funds from fees paid by the visitors to the popular exhibits that, eventually, they could afford to purchase one of his dinosaurs in a permanent acquisition to their collection.

Great numbers of museums especially designed to engage children have hosted exhibitions of Gary's sculpture. Generations have grown up with vivid memories of his work and his encouragement for them to follow his dynamic example. Astounding attendance records demonstrated a cross-cultural popularity in Australia, China, and Japan.

The last solo shows featuring the Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs exhibition on tour during the lifetime of the sculptor were two related ones in North Carolina in 2004. First the exhibition was displayed at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord for its Spring Extravaganza, after which the sculptures traveled to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for an exhibition hosted by its Belk College of Business. The sculptures were featured both indoors and outside on the large campus with walking and driving tours offered to the public, and the tour was extended twice.

Jim Gary is a self-taught sculptor whose works include abstracts, three-dimensional portraits, architectural, and functional pieces, as well as the celebrated collection of "Twentieth Century Dinosaurs"... creates his art using the things that many of us think of as junk. Old car parts, metal washers, glass, and screws are transformed into extraordinary works through the gift of Jim’s imagination. Considered a master of metal working, Jim creates the impression of motion from cold steel and found objects. Best of all, he infuses humor and personality into his creations. Spend just a few minutes with his road runners and dinosaurs and look at the expressions on their faces – you will find yourself naming the creatures and wanting to take them home!...

In September 2009 Jim Gary's publicist and studio director, Kafi Benz, announced that negotiations were in progress for sculptures from the exhibition to be put on permanent loan at a museum. Her long-range plan was that as much of the traveling exhibition as possible be displayed in permanent collections where the sculptures would remain open to the public. She noted that several sculptures had been placed at museums and venues in New Jersey that traditionally hosted displays of his sculpture throughout Gary's career, but most of the sculptures from the traveling exhibition were among those being included in the negotiations for loan as a single collection. She also stated that other Jim Gary sculptures from private collections could expand the collection that is being loaned by the Jim Gary Foundation.

On August 22, 2011, twenty-one Gary sculptures were shipped from New Jersey to Florida. Three photographers were invited by Gary's studio director and publicist to document the preparations and loading of the sculptures: William Angus, Jason Meehan, and Hal Sokolow. Both Angus and Sokolow have produced works dedicated to, or about, Jim Gary during their careers and more will be produced from the move. Angus stated that he doubted he would ever have an opportunity similar to shooting the complex move again in his lifetime.

Following a refurbishment of the sculptures, they are scheduled to be on exhibit at the Tallahassee Museum for at least a decade. They were at the museum previously, as a traveling exhibition in 1993, and the current executive director of the museum, Russell Daws, was in the same position at that time. Daws was in a similar position in 1979 at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia when he contracted with Jim Gary for his first opportunity to exhibit at a museum. An initial opening at an invitational fundraising event on October 14 will be followed by a public opening on October 15, 2011.