George Segal and Anti-Monumentality in American Culture: A Roundtable Discussion
George Segal’s plaster-cast figures have memorialized everyday life and pivotal moments in American culture, such as Gay Liberation (1980), the monument commemorating the Stonewall Inn uprisings of 1969 in New York City to advance LGBTQ+ rights. Segal’s commitment to the anti-monumental asks us to rethink what we know about the scale, process, and forms of monuments: How do monuments tell stories about our collective past, and who are included and recognized in these histories?
Join us for an interdisciplinary conversation as scholars seek to answer this question by connecting their cutting-edge research into feminist poetry, assemblage theory and art, and New Jersey’s racialized history of labor, by examining art objects in the Zimmerli’s special exhibition George Segal: Themes and Variations.
Donna Gustafson, Chief Curator and Curator of Art of the Americas at the Zimmerli, moderates a roundtable with professors:
- Bill Brown, University of Chicago
- Kristin Grogan, Rutgers Department of English
- Andrew T. Urban, Rutgers Department of American Studies
Q&A and light reception follow the discussion.
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- Lot 16 is the closest to the Zimmerli, located behind the museum. For directions, you also may use the address 536 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, which is the building located next to the lot entrance.
George Segal, Bus Shelter, 1996. Five Figures, painted plaster and wood, metal, and Plexiglas. Collection Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers. Purchased with funds donated by Ralph and Barbara Voorhees with additional support from: Michel and Michael Angelides, CIT Group, Carl Holstrom and Mary Beth Kineke, Paige and Elizabeth L'Hommedieu. Photo McKay Imaging Photography.