"Gay Liberation" By George Segal
webpage by Jackson
George Segal was born in 1924, in New York. In 1940, his family moved to South Brunswick, New Jersey. But he remained in New York to study at the Union of Art and Architecture in Manhattan, and received his diploma in '44.
From 1942 to 1946 he studied philosophy and literature as a part-time thing. Also in 1946, he married Helen Steinberg. 1947-48 he studied at the Pratt Institute of Design in Brooklyn.
Then, in 1956 he had his first one-man exhibition at the Hansa Gallery. In 1957 he was represented at the exhibition The New York School: Second Generation at the Jewish Museum in New York. In 1958, he returned his attention to sculpture, experimenting with plaster, burlap and wire mesh. He taught commercial art at Piscataway High School, and exhibited in Richard Bellamy's new Green Gallery, also, in New York.
In 1961 he taught painting at New Brunswick, and also discovered the technique of using medical bandages as material for his art, and even used himself as a model for Man At The Table, his first plaster cast using bandaging. From 1961 to 1964 he taught at Roosevelt Junior High School. In 1963 he received a Master of Fine Arts from Rutgers University and traveled to Europe. In the same year he exhibited at the Galerie Ileana Sonnabend.
In 1968 he had his first one-man exhibition at the museum of contemporary art in Chicago. In 1968 and 1969 he taught visual art and sculpture at Princeton University. His work leaned increasingly towards the portrayal of autobiographical scenes.
In 1970 he was awarded the degree of honorary doctor at Rutgers University, and in 1971-72 he had a retrospective at Zurich, Munich, Cologne, Rotterdam, Paris, Leverkusen and Tubingen. In 1972 he was Associate Guest Professor at City University, in New York. In 1977 he did some work on a sculpture for the Franklin Deelano Roosevelt monument in Washington.
And lastly, in 1983 he designed a cover for "Time" magazine, and also was the winner of the competition for the Holocaust Memorial.