Man on a Bench, 1986
George Segal
Park 474
Near Pearlstein Hall on
the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology
3300 South Federal Street
George Segal (1924-2000) is best known for his life-like,
whitewashed figures displayed in assembled environments that evoke activities of
everyday life. The process involved placing bandages dipped in plaster on human
models, resulting in statues that are convincingly human in scale, posture and
features, but appear remote in their stillness and monochromatic presence. When
Segal began casting in bronze, he maintained his signature white finish by
sealing the pieces with white acrylic resin.
This work was commissioned in 1986 by the Illinois
Institute of Technology (IIT) in honor of the centennial celebration of the
birth of renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who designed the campus
and many of its buildings and served the institution as program director and
instructor. IIT chose Segal to create the first permanent outdoor sculpture for
the campus.
The figure appears to be an African American man relaxing
on a wooden bench, a sight one would expect to see on a college campus but made
strange by the ghostly appearance of the statue. Funding for the work came from
major donors, such as Daniel J. Terra, but also from the B.F. Ferguson Fund,
which requires that the artwork be on public land. Thus, IIT deeded the
nine-foot by six-foot site that contains the work to the Chicago Park District.
It has the distinction of being Chicago’s smallest park.
No comments:
Post a Comment