John Raymond Henry
John Raymond Henry, 79, internationally recognized sculptor, artist, arts supporter, activist, and community builder, died November 1st at his home in Brooksville, Florida.
Henry grew up in Lexington KY. He studied at the University of Kentucky and received his B.F.A from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He also studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. In 1996 the University of Kentucky awarded him the Honorary Doctor of Arts degree for “sustained achievement and distinction of national or international significance.” In 2005, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award for “extraordinary service to the university and the association.” His talents captured the attention of such organizations as the Ryerson Fellowship at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Ford Foundation, and The National Endowment of the Arts, which awarded him three separate grants,
While living in Chicago, Henry created ConStruct, an artist-owned operation featuring the work of its members; Mark di Suvero, Kenneth Snelson, Linda Howard, Lyman Kipp, Jerry Peart, Frank McGuire, and John himself. It operated a gallery in Chicago and mounted traveling exhibitions of its artists’ large-scale work. Throughout the Chicago art community John is often referred to as “the grandfather of Chicago sculpture” for his selflessness and mentoring of his fellow sculptors, launching exhibitions through out the Chicago area public spaces and making his mark as a leader, encouraging his peers and younger artists that came on to the scene.
In 2008 Henry launched the Peninsula Project involving seven Florida cities. Each city featured a large scale work, a gallery exhibition with mid-sized and a number of small scale works and models, as well as exhibits offering views into the processes and realities of the making of sculpture itself. The exhibition included 270 works of art in total.
His work is in public and private collections across the globe, with large-scale sculpture in major cities including; Chicago, St Louis, Dallas, numerous sites in Florida, as well as in Italy, Germany, Brazil, South Korea and China.
Henry and his wife Pamela, turned a brownfield area of Chattanooga, into a sculpture destination. “Sculpture Fields at Montague Park” is a repository for works of sculpture by internationally-known artists on thirty-three acres of a city-owned field. Their compound of home, office and studio was the eastern anchor of development by the city, turning an under-utilized industrial area into a vibrant residential neighborhood in a short period of four years. Chattanooga was their home and base of operations for twenty years and their close ties to the community remained important to them since their relocation to Florida.
On the national level, John spoke with pride about his tenure with Young Arts. Organized by founders Lin and Ted Arison of Carnival Cruise Lines, to recognize talented senior high school level students and enable them to pursue their art form and fulfill their dreams through grants and programs. Henry served as a Board of Trustees member as well as Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Programs Committee throughout the 1990s, and worked alongside luminaries such as Placido Domingo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Frank Gehry, and Marisa Tomei and Sharon Stone, among others.
John’s years of service to the International Sculpture Center included his tenure as Chairman of the Board and active advisor as well as Chairman Emeritus. In recognition of his service and of his many other contributions to the arts and to the profession of sculpture, the International Sculpture Center selected John for its Lifetime Achievement Award, to be conferred in May 2023.
John Henry was larger than life, with a laugh that filled the room, a story or a joke at the ready. Whether wearing a tuxedo or jeans and cowboy boots, he presented a can-do persona, one that could tackle almost any challenge and wrestle it to the ground.
Henry is survived by his wife, Pamela, daughters Katherine Henry (Harry Hudson) and Stacey Lyle, grandson Maxwell Barrett, Henry Wolf and brothers-in- law Wendell Kingsolver and Rodney Bedgio (Lody Bedgio) as well as many nephews, nieces, and cousins. He was predeceased by his parents, A.R. and Nellie Campbell Henry, and his sisters, Virginia Henry Kingsolver, Lenora Henry Isenhour and his brother-in-law Richard B Isenhour.
Visitation will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10, at Milward, Southland, Lexington, KY. Graveside services at the Lexington Cemetery on Friday, Nov. 11, at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations to Sculpture Fields, Chattanooga, Tn., https://www.sculpturefields.org/donation-page