Artwork Page for The Red Light

Details / Information for The Red Light

The Red Light

1972

George Segal

(American, 1924–2000)
Culture
America
Medium
plaster and mixed media
Measurements
Overall: 289.5 x 243.8 x 91.4 cm (114 x 96 x 36 in.)
Credit Line
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1974.22
Copyright
© Estate of William Schwedler / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
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Did You Know?

Segal pioneered the unique use of plaster bandages to make his sculpted figures.

Description

George Segal began his career as a figurative painter, but in the 1960s his interest turned toward "the theater of the street," and he began to create three-dimensional "environments." Built like stage sets that incorporated real objects as props—the truck in The Red Light was Segal's own—the settings usually evoke an urban environment. Segal felt that "a minute of existence is miraculous and extraordinary." His work freezes those minutes, allowing them to be studied in depth. To achieve this effect in The Red Light, Segal worked with a live model, soaking cloth in a durable white industrial plaster to cast the figure in sections. He then cut the cast into sections, reassembled the pieces, and adjusted the pose. The figure's all-white surface and lack of specific facial features convey a sadly anonymous presence, offering a metaphor for the reality of city life.
Mixed media sculpture with the front of a life size vintage red truck protruding from a solid black background. A white plaster cast of a bald and mustached figure in a coat, hands in pockets, steps in front of the truck. Hanging in the upper right of the black background is a streetlight, red light on.

The Red Light

1972

George Segal

(American, 1924–2000)
America

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