George Segal: Body Language

Through January 2021

It is life as art, and it can only be seen at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. George Segal: Body Language marks the second exhibition featuring the renowned artist, whose work was first shown here in 2004. This time around, we’ll debut sculptural reliefs and selections from a recent gift of 32 prints from the George and Helen Segal Foundation and Rena Segal, his daughter.

Celebrated for his inventive technique, Segal is known for drawing inspiration from his everyday life and turning seemingly simple scenes into profound statements on the human condition. Those closest to the artist are his conduits for exploring the intricacies of the human form. Segal’s wife, Helen, and their daughter, Rena, were frequent subjects, as were extended family and friends. Their portraits transcend the physical to become windows into deeply personal moments that are relatable to all people.

Segal is best known for his radical experimentation with new media to explore body language and the human experience. In the 1960s, he trademarked a process in which he covered a model’s body with medical bandages treated with plaster and dipped in water, to create a cast that closely resembles a second “skin.” Completing a sculpture required Segal to cast different sections of the body separately and then reassemble the parts into a finished cast by adding more plaster to the exterior. From start to finish, the process took weeks.

Because his work is based on real people in real-life situations, the successful completion of a cast required the model to be relaxed as the plaster bandages settled and dried. Consider Woman in Armchair, the first Segal sculpture in our permanent collection. The bronze features a woman Segal and his wife met while traveling in Egypt. After befriending the woman and her husband, Segal asked her to sit for him. The resulting sculpture shows her completely at ease, a family friend sympathetic to the artist’s ingenious, if tedious, process.

The bustling streets of New York also provided perpetual inspiration for Segal. Upon observing people on the street, in cafés and on buses and subway trains, Segal recreated what he saw in his studio. Two of his most recognized works, Bus Passengers and Street Crossing, depict such group scenes. Segal asked each model to pose separately and then assembled the cast figures as a group. Street Crossing features his wife and daughter, along with several art historian and artist friends.

The artist’s approach to sculptural reliefs is equally innovative and intimate. As with his full figure sculpture, he transforms the human body into artistic form through a casting process pouring hydrostone into a mold to reveal a more realistic form with subtle skin texture in the finished plaster. As you walk through the exhibition, notice the reliefs that feature the backs of female bodies and how Segal was able to heighten sensuality and eroticism by carving around the nude backs to create the illusion of a figure emerging from the wall.

Like his sculptural works, Segal’s limited edition prints are deeply personal, often of his family and friends. His process begins by first making pastel drawings of these models and then turning them into aquatint or silkscreen prints. In working with these different printmaking techniques, Segal added a layer of artistic invention to his process. Note how this aquatint process turns portraits of familiar faces like his Helen, Rena and other family friends into mysterious light and dark abstractions.

George Segal: Body Language is an invitation to enter the poignant world of an artist who bravely captures the raw humanity that connects us all. The exhibition complements the artist’s Girl Standing in Nature, which also resides in our permanent collection on display in the sculpture park, and serves as a fitting prelude to the unveiling of a bronze Segal titled Acrobats in the new Welcome Center when it opens next year.