Inspired by a real costume party he attended, this work consists of six life-size figures. In a radical departure from his "banal subjects" (as he himself put it), and usual matte white figures, Segal debuted as a colorist in the mid-1960s. Plaster, wood, chrome, laminated plastic, Masonite, fluorescent lamp, glass, paper - Collection of Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota In fact, this particular sculpture served as the backdrop for a 30-second promotional video in 2014 for the Walker Art Center, starring actor Danny Glover. The theatrical aspects of the work are intensified by standing in the same space with it. This could be anyone, in any diner, across the country. Where Segal goes further is in the medium itself - a life-sized restaging of the everyday event - and the mysterious, almost magical open-endedness of the moment he has chosen to capture. Diners, the quintessential symbol of middle-class America, had appeared in the work of numerous other artists. They are arrested in motion, one seated and one working behind the counter. The objects are real the white monochrome figures are not. Familiar items such as coffee cups, sugar, napkin dispensers, and a coffee urn, set the stage. Here, lit from above by a fluorescent lamp, are two figures at a realistic lunch counter. Plaster, wood, and glass - Collection Museum Abteiberg, Monchengladbach, West Germanyīy the mid-1960s Segal's figures and constructed environments had become more complex. This suspense is part of the quiet drama of Segal's everyday scenes from the early 1960s. The figure, seated alone at an empty table, appears to be waiting for something. Finally, there is the aura of anticipation. The use of the plaster bandage calls attention to the vulnerability of the body. First, there is the contrast between the real (the window, chair, and table are largely unmodified by the artist) environment, and the spectral presence that inhabits it. While less attention is given to specific context here than in later sculptures, Man at a Table is evidence of the key ideas he would explore for the rest of his career. Segal wrapped his body parts in bandages and made casts which he then reassembled to make the figure. Man at a Table depicts a seated, life-sized figure based on the body of the artist himself. This work is the first of Segal's sculptures incorporating bandages dipped in plaster, his signature medium. His figures provide a window onto the human condition in a way that sets them apart from other Pop art inventions. While other Pop artists ( Warhol, Lichtenstein, Oldenburg and others) focused on logos, labels, advertisements, and other mass-produced products, Segal engages directly with the psychology of the consumer. Segal is the most existential of the Pop artists.The sources that informed him range from the mysterious wrapped bodies of mummies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the suspenseful film noirs of the 1940s and 1950s (such as Citizen Kane). An avid museumgoer and film buff, Segal was a cultural sponge. As he put it, "For me to decide to make a cast of a human being broke all the rules of fine art." While plaster casts of antique busts had existed for hundreds of years, Segal's practice of dipping bandages into plaster and applying them to a live model was quite new.Despite this dimension of personal significance, the strength of his work lies in the universal significance of human gesture and expression, evident in Segal's public monuments to the Gay Rights movement and The Great Depression, as well as the Holocaust. Segal was from a family of Polish Jews, most of whom perished in the Holocaust. Segal's plaster cast sculptures, literally the shells of people, can be read as poignant reminders of the human toll taken by World War II. Designed to treat broken bones, the bandage is not just a medium but a metaphor.
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