George Segal: Body Language

George Segal: Body Language THROUGH JANUARY 3, 2021

“I find it increasingly difficult to separate abstraction from figuration. If the impulse for a work starts some place in the real world where I’ve been, or in some reaction I’ve had inside myself to something outside myself, that’s already complicated, and while I am working everything shuffles back and forth. It’s a real person, a real gesture, real places, real things. If I’m going to come anywhere close to the essence of experience, I’ll suppress extraneous detail. I’ll change color; I’ll carve space.”

George Segal and model working in the artist’s studio.

Photo courtesy of The George and Helen Segal Foundation.

—GEORGE SEGAL, 1972

George Segal (1924-2000)

The American artist was always inspired by interacting with real people, creating sculptures from everyday life. In his prints, the human form appeared more abstract and mysterious. The exhibition George Segal: Body Language

invites visitors to experience the many ways in which the artist turned the human body into artistic form.

Segal spent five decades exploring the human body in different media, including sculpture, painting, drawing and printmaking. Starting in the 1960s, he developed a unique and radical sculpture technique: he covered a person’s body with medical bandages treated with plaster and dipped in water, creating a direct cast. In order to complete a plaster sculpture, he cast different sections of the body separately and then reassembled the parts into a finished cast, adding more plaster to the exterior. The entire process from casting the body to the finished sculpture could take weeks.

George Segal. Portrait: Helen III, 1987. Aquatint. Photo by Chuck Heiney.

Body Language

In this exhibition is a selection of sculptures representing the body in

different states, such as reading, contemplating, walking or standing.

Groups of figures such as Bus Passengers and Street Crossing maintain their own space while merging with ours as we encounter them.

GALLERY REFLECTION What does the body language of the figures in these sculptures tell you about them? What might they be thinking or feeling? If you were in the scene, how would you interact with the other figures?

George Segal. Bus Passengers, 1997. Plaster, plastic and metal.

George Segal. Girl in Bright Red Shirt, 1975. Aquatint. Photo by Chuck Heiney.

Printmaking

In addition to sculpture, Segal worked in two-dimensional media, where he used color and value to create movement and spatial depth. As a printmaker, Segal explored the body in lithography, silkscreening, and aquatint, all requiring a very different technique and process.

GALLERY REFLECTION How are the prints similar to the sculptures?

How are they different?

George Segal. Street Crossing, 1992. Bronze with white patina. Photo by Kirstin Volkening.

GALLERY REFLECTION Street Crossing is often installed in outdoor public spaces like busy intersections or plazas.

How does a museum gallery setting change the feeling or interpretation of this piece?

Coloration

In separate galleries, compare the aquatint Portrait: Helen III with the silkscreen Woman in Red Kimono. In Portrait: Helen III, Segal used the etching process to go beyond portraiture, creating strong light and dark contrasts around his wife’s seated figure. Whereas in Woman in Red Kimono, a print created by pushing ink through a silk or nylon screen, the artist relied on cropping, lines, and coloration to define the body.

GALLERY REFLECTION Color has a strong connection with emotion and symbolism that varies widely between cultures and individuals. How does the color or absence of color in each piece make you feel about these figures?

George Segal. Woman in Red Kimono (detail), 1985. Silkscreen. Photo by Chuck Heiney.

Plaster Relief and Other Works

Using a different casting technique, Segal was able to create high relief sculptures with great depth. Mounting these reliefs on a wall, Segal created a dynamic interplay between extended sculpture and flat wall. Segal cast some sculpture in bronze, so they could be placed outdoors. Visit the Harvey Lemmen Gallery, in our Sculpture Park, to see Segal’s Girl Standing in Nature.

GALLERY REFLECTION George Segal has described his work as “carving out space”. How does the negative space in his pieces compare to the positive space? Segal created reliefs where only a part of the body is visible. How do these works relate to the rest of the exhibition?

George Segal. Girl in Chair: Dangling Left Arm, 1974. Plaster. Photo by Chuck Heiney.

George Segal and child models creating casts in the artist’s studio in 1966.

Photo courtesy of The George and Helen Segal Foundation.

“The George and Helen Segal Foundation is pleased to see Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park exhibit their collection of Segal works along with rarely seen prints.

It is wonderful that his work will inspire new audiences.”

—RENA SEGAL, DIRECTOR OF THE GEORGE AND HELEN SEGAL FOUNDATION

GEORGE SEGAL: BODY LANGUAGE EXHIBITION

Segal cast some sculptures in bronze, so they could be placed outdoors.

Visit the Harvey Lemmen Gallery, in our Sculpture Park, to see Segal’s Girl Standing in Nature.

Left: George Segal. Head on Arms, 1978. Lithograph. Photo by Chuck Heiney.

Cover: George Segal. Redhaired Girl with Green Robe (detail), 1986. Silkscreen. Photo by Chuck Heiney.

George Segal. Neysa, 1989. Acrylic on plaster, wood and metal. Photo by Chuck Heiney.

Programming Fee: Included with admission. Exhibition programs are drop-in, and registration is not required. Please direct questions to Amber Oudsema at 616-974-5225

SCULPTURE WALK: FIGURES IN THE GARDENS Sunday, July 12, 2 pm Amber Oudsema, Curator of Arts Education

Explore the Sculpture Park with Curator of Arts Education, Amber Oudsema, during an hour-long walk, discussing sculptures that focus on the human figure. Learn about how artists investigate the human condition through the body.

LECTURE: EXPLORING PROCESS—PRINTMAKING Sunday, September 13, 2 pm Mariel Versluis, Chair of the Printmaking Program at Kendall College of Art and Design Join working artist and college professor, Mariel Versluis, as she discusses the processes of printmaking.

Topics will include why an artist might choose one printmaking process over the other, when to add color, and which medium is her favorite. See some examples of Versluis’s work and equipment and learn about this widely appreciated and complex artistic process.

DROP-IN WORKSHOP: EXPLORING PROCESS—PRINTMAKING Sunday, October 11, 1–4 pm Lotus Liu, Education Department Intern

Explore our exhibition, George Segal: Body Language, then create your own collage with human figures cut out of magazines. You will learn about why the artist used fragmentated body images in his artworks, and get creative with colors, shapes, and compositions. All materials provided. Best for adults and older children.

George Segal: Body Language is made possible by The Meijer Foundation Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Foundation Botanic and Sculpture Societies of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts

FREDERIK MEIJER Gardens & Sculpture Park

promotes the enjoyment, understanding and appreciation of gardens, sculpture, the natural environment and the arts.

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