Segal Foundation Honors Boca Raton Museum of Art

The George & Helen Segal Foundation Honors the Boca Raton Museum of Art with Donation of Seven Works by George Segal (BOCA RATON, FL) ─ The George & Helen Segal Foundation has honored the Boca Raton Museum of Art with the donation of seven works by George Segal: two master sculptures that have traveled the globe delighting art lovers at the world’s leading art capitals, and five rarely seen drawings that reveal a deeply intimate side of Segal, one of America’s most renowned artists of all time. The two sculptures had been previously selected for prominent exhibitions across several continents, including the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the Champs-Elysees in Paris, exhibitions throughout Asia, at the National Gallery of Canada, and in Germany. “We felt the Boca Raton Museum of Art would be a lovely new home for these works,” said Rena Segal, the artist’s daughter and the President of the George & Helen Segal Foundation. Two of the Segal gifts have already been installed at the museum and may be viewed by the public. Woman in Black T-Shirt, a wall relief created by George Segal in 1990, is on view in the museum’s Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art. “I remember that the model for this sculpture was the girlfriend of one of my father’s friends,” said Rena Segal, who now lives in the original family home where she grew up, which she recently renovated in New Jersey. “She’s looking out from an old door that came from a building that was being taken down in New Brunswick,” said Rena Segal. “He loved to work with found objects.” The other sculpture, Woman Walking Under Scaffold, is now installed in the museum’s outdoor sculpture garden. Eight feet tall and more than ten feet in length, the work was created by George Segal in 1989 and features a bronze figure. “My father was inspired to create this sculpture by a vision he experienced inside one of the pyramids of Egypt. He liked to say she ‘walked like an Egyptian,’ singing this phrase around the house in the style of the popular 1980s song of that same time,” said Rena Segal. “The model was a friend of mine named Gretchen, and my father asked her to pose and gesture for him in a manner similar to the Egyptian sculptures and hieroglyphics he saw on this trip to Giza. Our family really loved this sculpture, we thought it was beautifully done. Gretchen passed away years ago, and when her family learned that this sculpture would find a home in Florida, they were very happy because she would not be too far away from them. They’re comforted in knowing they can ‘visit’ her by traveling nearby to the Boca Raton Museum of Art to see the sculpture of their beloved Gretchen,” said Rena Segal. “Our museum is thrilled to have been selected by the George & Helen Segal Foundation as the new home for these important works,” said Irvin Lippman, the Executive Director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. The Foundation also donated five rarely seen drawings by George Segal to the museum. The artist’s titles for these evoke a sense of peering back through time into his personal family life at home. His daughter, Rena, remembers that Five Apples Four Peaches is a pastel drawing he created using the same fruit that her father was casting for his Cezanne Still Lifes series. Helen In Restaurant, she remembers, is a drawing of her mother in a New Jersey diner. The three other drawings are called Black Self Portrait, Jeff’s Friends, and Morning: Rumpled Blanket. About the Boca Raton Museum of Art Founded by artists, the Boca Raton Museum of Art was established in 1950 as the Art Guild of Boca Raton. The organization has grown to encompass an Art School, Guild, Museum and Sculpture Garden. As part of a highly strategic and comprehensive reimaging of its public-facing exteriors, Boca Raton Museum of Art recently unveiled a major renovation of its exterior spaces. Designed by Glavovic Studio and Studio Roberto Rovira, this $1.8 million project presents a new prominence for the Museum. Located in Mizner Park, at 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, FL 33432.