African

Ancient Mediterranean

Asian

European and American

Art since 1900

Art since 1900

In 1960, George Segal made his first direct sculpture casts from live models with plaster-soaked bandages obtained from Johnson & Johnson. The idea of exhibiting an unpainted body cast as a finished work was revolutionary and catapulted figurative sculpture into a new expressive dimension.

Segal's shift to this distinctive medium came from his weariness with Abstract Expressionism's interest in surface. His three-dimensional structures, made from cheap materials -- wood, wire, plaster -- instead reflect Pop art's preoccupation with collapsing the boundaries between fine and popular art. Yet, Segal denied Pop art's avowed superficiality through his desire to probe the physical and emotional connections between people and their environments. Like his friend Allan Kaprow, who is recognized as one of the first American artists to merge art and life into interactive performances that he called "happenings," Segal's disembodied casts compel us to distinguish between their realities and our own existence.

Segal's Girl Resting, a fragmented figure, is poised in a serenely, introspective mood. Her haunting, classical whiteness and telling gesture suggest a condition of isolation and solitude. In all of his sculptures, Segal interprets aspects of the human condition.