George Segal working on Depression Breadline, which can be seen at Grounds for Sculpture. Photograph by Donald Lokuta
What I'm trying to do in my work is somehow fumble around for the language to talk about the equivalent of five seconds of consciousness... We have a physical sense of who we are, and we also have all these ideas in our head—ideas that take a lifetime to gather. ~ George Segal


Dear Friend,

Tomorrow, June 9, is the anniversary of George Segal's death (1924-2000). He’s one of New Jersey’s most celebrated artists, with a deeply personal approach to sculpture. This week, we're sharing George Segal: American Still Life. State of the Arts producer Amber Edwards created this personal profile of George Segal’s life and work for national distribution on PBS in 2000, just before his death—in fact, she filmed his very last casting session.
George Segal at work, as photographed by Donald Lokuta, his good friend and frequent model. You can learn more about Donald’s portraits of the artist, taken over many years, in our 2015 feature, "George Segal in Black and White."
George Segal, who lived most of his life on a farm in Central New Jersey, first used dry plaster bandages to create body casts from live models in the early 1960s. The resulting life-size figurative sculptures can be found in museums and public spaces around the world. In New Jersey, there are examples in Trenton, New Brunswick, Princeton University, Montclair State University, and at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton.

As George puts it, "If I'm able to somehow connect a chunk of 'real' with something mental in my head, I'm ecstatic." We hope you enjoy this special look at this renowned New Jersey artist.
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The State of the Arts team.
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The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, encouraging excellence and public engagement in the arts since 1966, is proud to co-produce State of the Arts with Stockton University, New Jersey's distinctive public university, in cooperation with PCK Media.

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