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Jan 27, 2014

The Red Light

1972

George Segal

(American, 1924–2000)

America, 20th century

Plaster and mixed media

Overall: 289.5 x 243.8 x 91.4 cm (114 x 96 x 36 in.)

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1974.22

Location

not on view

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.

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Citations

“Acquisitions of Modern Art by Museums.” The Burlington Magazine CXVII (May 1975), mentioned p. 328, reproduced p. 334, no. 90.

Henning, Edward B. “The Red Light by George Segal.” CMA Bulletin LXIII, vol. 63, no. 5, (May 1976), mentioned p.146-150, reproduced p.147, fig. 1.

Hunter, Sam. George Segal. New York: Rizzoli, 1984, pp. 54, 58, reproduced color fig. 50, p. 57.

Lym, Glenn Robert. “When Places Include People: Edward Hopper and George Segal.” Places: A Quarterly Journal of Environmental Design, vol. 2, no. 1, (1985), mentioned p.28-29, reproduced p.29, no. 14.

Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1974.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 3 (March 1975): 62–102. Mentioned: p. 62, 64, 102; Reproduced: p. 86, no. 138 www.jstor.org

Henning, Edward B. “Sky Cathedral-Moon Garden Wall by Louise Nevelson.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 7 (September 1977): 242–51. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 243-244 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 256 archive.org

Exhibition history

CMA 1973: "Contemporary American Artists," cat. #24, repr. p. 17

CMA 1975: "Year in Review 1974," Bulletin, LXII (March 1975), p. 102, cat. #138, repr. p. 87

CMA 1975: "Traditions and Revisions," cat. #116, repr. p. 136

CMA 1976: "Materials and Techniques of 20th Century Artists," cat. #9

Minneapolis, MN, Walker Art Center, 1978-1979: "George Segal: Sculptures," cat. no. 28, repr. p. 82 (Approved: Trustees' Meg 7/25/1977).

Year in Review: 1974. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 11-April 6, 1975).

Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).

George Segal: Sculptures. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (October 29, 1978-January 7, 1979); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (February 18-April 1, 1979); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (May 16-July 8, 1979).

Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).

Life is a Highway: American Car Culture. The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (organizer) (June 15-September 15, 2019).

Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=The Red Light|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1974.22|author=George Segal|year=1972|access-date=11 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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The Red Light

The Red Light

George Segal

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