George Segal (1924-2000): Retrospective
7 August, 2002 - 30 October, 2002

The General Staff hosts a retrospective exhibition of the modern American artist George Segal (1924-2000). 98 works showed include sculptures, paintings and drawings and represent all stages in the creative development of this major modern American master. The exhibition is organized by the State Hermitage Museum together with the George Segal Foundation and the Zimmerli Art Museum of the Rutgers State University, New Brunswick, U.S.A.
During the earlier part of his artistic career, George Segal paid most attention to painting. He was influenced by such masters as Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse. In the late 50s, Segal started experimenting with sculpture. The artist's one-man exhibition at the Green Gallery in New York in 1960 showed his sculptures in a real environment. In 1961 Segal for the first time used medical bandage with plaster in sculpture; from 1964, he was wholly preoccupied with this art, experimenting with diverse materials and techniques.
George Segal the sculptor is unique due to his relationship with the major trends generated by the American culture of the mid-twentieth century, expressionism, abstract painting, happenings, pop art, minimalism and real-thing structures.
Segal's method was similar to making a mock-up, with the use of a real figure's cast. Model dictated the sculpture's scale. To find an image took long deliberations, sketches and searches for a posture. Then the artist put special medical bandage with plaster powder within it around the model, adjusting the model's form as he did it. When bandage dried, it made a sort of thick shell. When it was cut, the artist got the model's initial elements. Parts were put together, form was adjusted and surface was treated. Pure white color of most of Segal's works, as the artist himself claimed, did away with details which could distract the onlooker's attention. Segal's characters denuded of any color are set against the background of multicolored modern life.
These characters are poor or middle-class people. The artist was aware of social conflict, as witness his sculpture, for example The Homeless (1989). The figure of a man sitting aloof and the background in the form of a wall with bars make up a single plastic construction showing the work's basic idea. Segal's environments may not be thought without real objects. They determine characters' habitat. The signpost in The Chance Meeting (1989) is one of the key elements of the composition. This simple scene required great efforts from the artist. Everything shows electrization (word used by Segal to describe his characters' ambiance), indicator with the words One Way, frightening luster of the metal post, strained postures and each figure's psychological isolation.
In the seventies, Segal took up "internal formation", when figures were cast after the plaster shell was made into the form for subsequent work. Figures became more refined and graceful, body was reproduced more exactly, minutes nuances of living volume were caught.
Naked female body provided the principal inspiration in the 1970s. Segal's reliefs, often painted, are plastically and softly molded. He used color in sculpture as a means of estrangement. Segal confided that if he painted sculptures they gave him the impression of a carnival.
George Segal's paintings showed in the exhibition have large sizes and strong colors. Clear-cut strokes which characterize his early pastels belie a sculptor's vision of nature. Soft tonal modeling and chiaroscuro of his later works remind one of the artist's sculptural preferences which are noted for their plasticity, softly molded details, tactility and particular spatiality.

Without Title
1957-1960
Larger view

Bus Passengers
1997
Larger view

Chance Meeting
1989
Larger view

Torso. Hand on Thigh
1978
Larger view

Couple
1974
Larger view

Five Apples, Four Peaches
1983
Larger view