Born On This Day- November 26th... Artists & Friend George Segal

"I'm trying to be a human being. I used to idolize artists as demigods, I thought when I was younger that was one of the most magnificent ways a man could spend his life, I still think so, inspite of everything, I don't know why. But gradually it has dawned on me that that art is made by men, not gods or demigods, & ...I'm simply a man speaking to other people."

Straight but not narrow, what a perfect description of a gay rights ally, a casual, approachable man known for his sense of humor, George Segal worked for much of his career in a 300 foot long former chicken coop on his farm near South Brunswick, N.J. He applied Johnson & Johnson cotton bandages dipped in plaster to the faces & forms of family members, friends, neighbors, & friends in the art world. His wife, Helen, whom he married in 1946, was one of his most frequent subject models, having first sat for her husband in the 1940's & 1950's when he was still a painter. They remained together until his death at 76 in 2000.



I am a real fan of the ghostly sculptures that I have viewed in museums & as public art. George Segal was the most important pop sculptor of his time. I the monument he had created in Sheridan Park to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots.


Like so many of Segal's sculptures, Gay Liberation is unassuming, simple plaster casts of ordinary Americans: a pair of women sitting on a park bench & 2 men standing in front, the historic Stonewall Inn in the background. You might not notice anything unusual about the sculpture at first, but if you study it, there is something going on, something that takes a few moments to register: these are casts of gay couples in caring, romantic poses, the embraces of committed relationships, of deep love & companionship. A man firmly holds the shoulder of his lover; a woman has her arm on the lap of her partner, whose hand is resting on hers.

The couples in Gay Liberation are ordinary, designed to depict gay relationships as normal, a revolutionary statement for a mainstream artist when the 1st version of the sculpture was created in 1983. Segal's sculptures have always appeared to me as petrified remains of ancient Romans left in suspended animation after the explosion of Pompeii. Just like the volcanic dust in that ancient Italian city, they give the viewer imprecise, impressionistic figure. Physical gesture is often the main symbolic force in his work, & Gay Liberation is all about touch, & tender embrace.


Segal created sculptures of everyday American scenes & people: Walk, Don't Walk, depicts pedestrians, whitewashed, like a plaster leg cast, waiting to cross a street, & The Diner, with a man ordering a cup of coffee from a waitress, Segal was sort of the Norman Rockwell of pop sculpture for the 2nd half of the 20th century. It seems significant that in 1983 he had already sought to include gays as a part of his vision of the USA.

Gay Liberation brought protest. Segal: "Early on, local residents, mostly aging Italian Catholics, objected furiously to gays moving into their neighborhood, flouting their religious beliefs. I even got a letter threatening to blow up the sculpture when it was installed. Mayor Dinkins finally approved the installation. At the dedication on June 23, 1992, amazed at the lack of religious protest, I asked a local resident, how come? He laughed & said that the older protesters had mostly died; the younger ones were indifferent. But protests started pouring in from gays. What right did I, non-gay, have to make a sculpture on this subject? Why wasn't a black lesbian woman included in the sculpture? Why weren't all the gay groups consulted? The cacophony was shrill, & nowhere was there any mention of freedom of expression or any discussion of delicacy, restraint, regard for fellow human beings, and a long list of values important in my life."


Gay Liberation has had a a bit of a tough life. In 1994, a bunch of frat jocks at Stanford University decided to take out some frustration on an earlier cast of Gay Liberation, which has been installed on the campus since 1984. The vandals, including the championship football team's quarterback & linebacker, were at the center of a national scandal that, ironically, garnered more media attention than any real-life gay-bashing ,short of murder, ever could. The Stanford installation was the first public monument to gays in the USA, & the deeply embarrassed university took the attack seriously. For ramming the sculpture with a park bench & soaking it with paint, the men were prosecuted & sentenced to a year of probation & community service, which the judge suggested ought to include a gay studies class.


Segal: "The statement I tried to make in the sculpture is not a political one. It's rather a human one regarding our common humanity with homosexuals. I'm distressed that disagreement with the statement took this violent, brutal form." In 1987, someone spray-painted "AIDS" on the statue's male couple.


Segal's sculptures of gays, which are on view for the tourists, children & teenagers who visit Greenwich Village & Stanford University each year, are an important contribution to the mainstream works of art & literature that make an extra large affermation to the self esteem of young people who are discovering their sexuality.


Gay Liberation, with its subtly powerful embraces of gay couples, suggests that, rather than the classic stereotypes of loneliness & mental illness that have for too long been falsely associated with being homosexual, a normal, caring relationship with society is within reach. Thank you, George Segal, for your art & your humanity.