George Segal (1924–2000) has been the subject of four major retrospectives and has been included in many national and international exhibitions, including the groundbreaking New Realists show at the Sidney Janis Gallery, New York (1962). While the artist has long been acknowledged as one of the most important sculptors of the twentieth century, his work as a painter, in pastels, and in photography is less well known. George Segal: Themes and Variations examines the artist’s work in all media as a series of variations on themes that he mined throughout his long career—figural groups, the nude, still life, and portraits.

Celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of George Segal’s birth, this exhibition draws from the Zimmerli’s rich collection, with additional loans from the George and Helen Segal Foundation and a few private collections. Segal, who began as a painter, was one of a generation of artists associated with a new and avant-garde community based in Lower Manhattan in the late 1950s and 1960s. Much has been written about Segal’s sculpture and his sympathy for the common man. Less well known is his place in a community of artists who were friends, mentors, and models; his deep and personal relationship to the artists of the past; and his drawings, prints, and photographs. As we look back now, more than sixty years after his sculpture entered our visual field, his work in all media remains unsettling and vividly present.

George Segal: Themes and Variations is organized by Donna Gustafson, Chief Curator and Curator of Art of the Americas.

Generous support was provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.

The exhibition is supported by the George and Helen Segal Foundation, the Zimmerli’s George Segal Endowment Fund, and Rutgers University, and donors to the Zimmerli’s Major Exhibitions Fund: Kathrin and James Bergin, Sundaa and Randy Jones, and Heena and Hemanshu Pandya. The book is funded in part by the Class of 1937 Publication Fund.

The Zimmerli’s operations, exhibitions and programs are funded in part by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and income from the Avenir Endowment Fund and the Andrew W. Mellon Endowment Fund, among others. Additional support comes from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the donors, members, and friends of the museum.

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