By K.D. Norris
Visual artist George Segal was a sculptor, yes. But the current multi-medium exhibit at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, “George Segal: Body Language”, is clear evidence he was as interested in the human condition as he was in human representation.
The exhibit had a COVID-19 delayed opening this summer, and will continue on display at Meijer Gardens through January 2021.
After having lived with the exhibit for several months, WKTV caught up with Jochen Wierich, Meijer Gardens’ Curator of Sculpture & Sculpture Exhibitions, to talk about the reasons one visit with Segal’s works is probably not enough to understand and fully appreciate the artist and his art.
While Segal (1924-2000) was often, and in Wierich’s opinion unfittingly, lumped into the Pop Art era of the late 1950s and ‘60s — along with artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein — Segal was much more an observer of human nature, an explorer of human emotion.
That exploration of human nature and emotion is singularly clear in “Woman in Arm Chair”, already on permanent display at Meijer Gardens. But particularly telling to Wierich is “Street Crossing”, a 1992 work with several ambiguous figures moving through a fictional crossroads, seemingly blind to one another and to their surroundings, and on display as part of the current exhibition.
“Street Crossing is a very different piece because it shows Segal working with a large group of people, the scene he observed in New York, crossing the street and seeing people intersecting but not really interacting,” Wierich said. “It is a wonderful example of how he observed life, how he looked at people in everyday life.
“You might say, in today’s world of COVID-19, it already shows a bit of awareness of how people share space and how they navigate their physical distance. Or not.”
In WKTV’s video interview with Wierich, the art expert and educator also touched on how the current exhibit explores Segal’s works in many mediums, not just in sculpture, as well as why he did not always fit in neatly with his Pop Art peers.
“George Segal: Body Language” spans the career of Segal and focuses on his “creative vision in representing body language across a variety of materials,” as stated in supplied material. This is the first exhibition of Segal’s work at Meijer Gardens since 2004 and is the first time that a selection of the gift of 32 prints, one sculpture and three wall reliefs from the Segal Foundation and Rena Segal will be on display.
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is located at 1000 E Beltline Ave NE, Grand Rapids. For more information visit meijergardens.org.
WKTV college interns Rachel Weber and Matt Main contributed to this story.
