These works consist of plaster molds cast from living models in order to capture life like gestures, placed in environmental tableaux, which lock them in time. Where Segal goes further is in the medium itself - a life-sized restaging of the everyday event - and the mysterious, almost magical open-endedness of the moment he has chosen to capture. The Getty ULAN statesof George Segal: “American sculptor best known for his life-size sculptures of human figures set in environments. The overall achievement of Segal's photographs was to reinforce his aesthetic as a lens through which to look at the world, one that transcended medium. Segal’s sculptures are featured in major public collections.OPEN THURSDAYS - MONDAYS, 10 AM - 6 PM, TIMED TICKETS REQUIREDStay up to date with the latest news and announcements from Grounds For SculptureVisithttps://www.instagram.com/groundsforsculpture/ It was one of Segal's first completed public commissions, and stimulated future commissions for monuments based on his plaster sculptures. Plaster, wood, and wire - The Jewish Museum, New York Waiting, an overarching theme in Segal's work, is presented here with particular poignancy. The theatrical aspects of the work are intensified by standing in the same space with it. Segal, who lived through this era, remembered listening with his parents to Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats" on the radio.
Man at a Table. Although most of his figures remain white, in his later work he began painting them in vivid colors.”Born in 1926, George Segal grew up in the Bronx, NY. The figures are often placed within environments made with real objects, creating a personal tableau.Segal’s works have been exhibited in numerous prestigious museums and galleries throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Japan, and South America. Although he began as a figurative painter in the late 1950’s along with artists such as Allan Kaprow and George Brecht, he turned to sculpture in order to explore the human figure as it relates to actual space and its surroundings.
The objects are real; the white monochrome figures are not. They are arrested in motion, one seated and one working behind the counter. Life-sized hunched and hatted men in old overcoats stand in single file beside a brick wall. [Internet]. Segal’s early work is often treated within the framework of Pop Art, because of the reference to the individual’s position within mass culture and the examination of the relationship between fine and popular art. Segal was born in New York to Eastern European parents. The "guests" include Superman, Pussy Galore (the James Bond character), Catwoman (from Batman), and Bottom (from William Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream.") He was presented with the United States National Medal of Arts in 1999. Along with two other sculptures, entitled Plaster, wood, metal, and acrylic paint - Collection of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas While the impact of photography and photojournalism was always evident in Segal's sculptures, near the end of his career he became an active photographer. The standing figure is a visible manifestation of the psychic limbo in which the Holocaust survivor was caught, poised forever between the past and future and with the indelible memory of horror and loss. George Segal (American 1924 - 2000) was an acclaimed American artist, known mainly for his sculpture. He attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. Plaster, wood, chrome, laminated plastic, Masonite, fluorescent lamp, glass, paper - Collection of Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota In a radical departure from his "banal subjects" (as he himself put it), and usual matte white figures, Segal debuted as a colorist in the mid-1960s.