George Segal

George Segal (1924–2000) has been acclaimed as one of the major American sculptors of the late twentieth century. Born in New York City, Segal moved with his family to a farm in South Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1940, and soon purchased his own land across the road. After turning to art as a profession, Segal converted the property’s chicken coops into studio space, where he developed his methods and ideas during a career spanning over 50 years. Segal took several humanities courses part time at Rutgers University, though his early training in art and art education occurred in Manhattan. Segal received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers in 1963.

While painting, drawing, and printmaking were always important aspects of the artist’s production, Segal’s international reputation was built on his sculpture. His best known works feature human figures cast in plaster directly from models, arranged in combination with objects, backdrops, and settings.

Segal developed his subjects and techniques during the late 1950s and early 1960s, chronologically parallel to the rise and recognition of Pop Art. In 1959, Segal’s colleague and friend Allan Kaprow used Segal’s property as a location for “happenings,” free-form performance events that were among the significant sources for the Pop sensibility. However, Segal maintained an ambiguous relationship to Pop Art: “I feel detached from the phrase Pop Art and yet I have a fondness for it.” What separates his work from Pop Art is Segal’s unremitting emphasis on, and empathy with, human relationships and feelings, replacing Pop’s ironic or consumerist tendencies with a serious attempt to plumb human emotions and elicit profound reactions from the viewer.

The Zimmerli Art Museum gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the George and Helen Segal Foundation, which donated the painting and sculptures in this gallery.