By WKTV Staff
One cannot walk through the current main building area of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park and not take note of, pause to wonder about, the mysterious white-shrouded “Woman In Arm Chair”.
Is she alive? Sleeping? Is she someone’s grandmother? Someone’s muse?
Such is the work of George Segal, one of the masters of Pop Art and so much more.
Meijer Gardens will now offer more clues into the master’s mind as the venue announced June 15 the opening this week of its highly-anticipated but delayed multi-media exhibition, “George Segal: Body Language” — a show which combines the artist’s sculptures side-by-side with a recent gift of prints from the Segal Foundation.
The exhibit, the announcement states, “explores Segal’s career and focuses on his remarkable versatility in representing body language across different media including plaster and various print techniques.”
The exhibition will open today, Tuesday, June 16, and will run through Jan. 3, 2021.
“George Segal: Body Language” will span the career of Segal and focus on his “creative vision in representing body language across a variety of materials.” This is the first exhibition of Segal’s work at Meijer Gardens since 2004 and will be 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.
“We are thrilled to share this selection of George Segal’s sculptures, reliefs and two-dimensional works with our guests,” Jochen Wierich, Meijer Gardens’ Curator of Sculpture & Sculpture Exhibitions, said in supplied material. “Segal’s exploration of the human body across different media continues to resonate. By showing the wide range of prints he made while also working on sculpture, we hope to add a new and largely unexplored dimension to this important 20th century artist.”
As detailed in the announcement, approximately 60 years ago, Segal “embraced a new working process that catapulted him to become one of the most recognized twentieth-century sculptors.”
During the summer of 1961, Segal was introduced to medical gauze bandages which he began to use as a primary material to cast plaster sculptures. The following year he was included in the legendary exhibition “The New Realists”, along with Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and Jim Dine. In response to this group exhibition, the American media began to refer to the artists as a new movement: Pop Art.
“The George and Helen Segal Foundation is pleased to see Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park exhibit their collection of Segal works along with rarely seen prints,” Rena Segal, President of the George and Helen Segal Foundation, said in supplied material. “It is wonderful that his work will inspire new audiences.”
There will also be several special exhibition programs associated with the show. (Exhibition programs are drop-in and registration is not required. Please note, due to COVID-19, programming might change. Please visit MeijerGardens.org/Segal for a current list of exhibition programming.)
Among the special programs scheduled are:
— Sculpture Walk: Figures in the Gardens. Sunday, July 12, at 2 p.m. (Free with admission.) Amber Oudsema, curator of arts education, will lead an exploration pf the Sculpture Park during an hour-long walk, discussing sculptures that focus on the human figure. Learn about how artists investigate the human condition through the body.
— Lecture: Exploring Process — Printmaking. Sunday, Aug. 9, at 2 p.m. (Free with admission.) Mariel Versluis, working artist and chair of the printmaking program at Kendall College of Art and Design, will discuss the processes of printmaking. Topics will include why an artist might choose one printmaking process over the other, when to add color and which medium is her favorite.
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is located at 1000 E Beltline Ave NE, Grand Rapids. For more information visit meijergardens.org.
