John Goodyear

"...One's art helps create a responsiveness to life experiences. The peculiar process of art in which ideas and experiences are made tangible in materials makes a mutation, something which is both idea and thing. The cycle keeps repeating; art makes one see, what one sees makes art."
-John Goodyear

Using a grille instead of a canvas, John Goodyear creates constructions of acrylic on metal, wood, and plastic, adding motors and internal lighting. Classified by some as sculptures, Goodyear considers his works paintings that provide abstract organizational changes. Movement of the grille, or the viewer, create new geometric designs and patterns suggesting three-dimensional space. Goodyear's earlier paintings of the late 1950s and early 1960s were concerned with the reflection of light and color. In 1962, dissatisfied with a piece he was working on, he sawed it into thousands of painted slats and used them to form equal-sized grids, producing free-swinging suspended constructions. He later added motors and lighting. Further experimentation led to electrified optical works and pieces intended for touching. His more recent work is in demand for private and public buildings where they are incorporated into the architecture.

Education and Training
Bachelor of Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1948-1952
Master of Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1952-1954

Teachers and Influences
During his student days at the University of Michigan, Goodyear became aware of the Abstract Expressionists from New York and regional painters, such as Carlos Dojez, Richard Wilt, and Chet Lamore. The New York Abstract Expressionist Gerome Kamrowski later became a colleague and a close friend.

Goodyear was influenced by the his two years of US Army service in Sendai, Japan (1954-1956). The colors, patterns and architectural designs of Japan provided a formative influence. These observations were adapted in his search for a vehicle to express his own feelings. Goodyear's Kinetic paintings, predominantly in black and white, focused on recognizable subject matter adapted from his impressions of Japanese scrolls. His larger works exploring spatial ideas resulted from an invitation to view a lift-off of an Apollo moon rocket at Cape Canaveral. Goodyear created motorized, lighted grids depicting classical historic and religious themes following a trip to Europe.

Connection to Bucks County
The Goodyear family moved to a stone house, with a barn for a studio, near Lambertville, New Jersey, in 1974. They were attracted to the beauty of the area and the Delaware River.

Colleagues and Affiliations
Goodyear's wife is sculptor, Ann Dixon.
He is friends with Franz Geierhaas, Barry Snyder, Robert Mahon, and Carol Joyce.
Goodyear has exhibited at River Run Galleryin Lambertville, theMichener Art Museum and is affiliated with the Hunterdon Museum of Art in Clinton, New Jersey.

Major Solo Exhibitions
Amel Gallery, New York, New York, 1964, 1965, 1966
Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, 1966
Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1966
Rapid Reflect, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 1966
Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania, 1968
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, 1971
Musee du Quebec, Quebec, Canada, 1971
Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 1972
Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, 1972
Andrew Dickson White Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1972
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey, 1973
University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 1973, 1974
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey, 1975, 1981
Center of the Advanced Visual Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976
Slusser Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1981
Forensic Science Institute, Newark, New Jersey, 1981
Icarus and Deadalus Taking Flight, IBM Triangle Park, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1981
Rutger's Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey, 1982
Frank Martin Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1995
John Goodyear: Thinking into Form Works, 1950-2000, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2000
Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Major Group Exhibitions
By 1967, Goodyear had participated in over 50 group exhibitions relating to light or motion.
The Responsive Eye, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 1965
Light as a Creative Medium, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966
Light/Motion/Space, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1966
Radius 5, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. and other institutions, 1967
Arte de Sistemas II, Centro de Arte y Communicacion, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1972
Espace/Situation/72, Impact Gallery, Montreaux, Switzerland, 1972
Drawing Exhibition, University Art Museum, Austin, Texas, 1977
Interaction, Center of Advanced Visual Studies, MIT and other institutions, 1973-1974
Spirit of Constructivism, Nuemberger Museum, SUNY, Purchase, New York, 1980

Commissions
The Dawn of Law, marble reliefs, Legislative Services Building, The State Capitol, Trenton, New Jersey
Drawn from the Waters, stone reliefs, The Jewish Center, Princeton, New Jersey
Chiron, plaza tableau, University of Medicine and Dentistry, Piscataway, New Jersey

Children's Literature
Goodyear did illustrations for the book Lyell Island with Carol Joyce, a Bucks County Calligrapher.

Major Collections
New Jersey State Council on the Arts
James A. Michener Collection of 20 Century American Paintings, University of Texas, Austin, Texas
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Biblioteca di Galleria Nazional d'Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy
Biblioteque Nationale, Paris, France
British Museum, London, England
The Brooklyn Museum, New York
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
National Gallery of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York

Teaching and Professional Appointments
Instructor, University of Michigan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1956-1962
Instructor, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, 1962-1964
Professor of Art, Douglass College, 1964-1976
Director of Graduate Studio Art Program, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1974-1976
Chairperson, Dept. Of Art, Douglass College, Rutgers University, 1976-1979
Guest Lecturer, Ecole Nationale de Cergy, Ponpoise, France, 1983
Chair of Art Department at Mason Gross, 1987-1989

Major Awards
Graham Foundation Grant, 1962