Three People on Four Benches
Three People on Four Benches
Artist
George Segal
(1924 - 2000)
Date1979
MediumBronze figures with white patina, aluminum benches, and paint
Dimensions52 × 144 × 58 in. (132.1 × 365.8 × 147.3 cm)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Gift of The George and Helen Segal Foundation, 2015.18
Accession number
2015.18
On View
On viewLabel TextGeorge Segal designed Three People on Four Benches to both facilitate public engagement and subtly comment on the loneliness of modern life. An important figure in the Pop art movement, Segal engaged with popular culture, not by depicting Coke bottles or soup cans like Andy Warhol, but by examining the people who populate the modern world. The placement of the sitting human sculptures asks viewers to question the interactions, or lack thereof, between the figures. But Segal does not simply create a work to be looked at; by leaving enough space on the benches for viewers to join the group, he also invites guests to interact with the work themselves. The sculpture adapts to any site and offers itself to the aesthetic, psychological, and physical possibilities of its audience.
