Regarded as one of the greatest American Pop Artists, George Segal’s figures are unmistakable. Segal grew up in New York City and attended New York University and the Pratt Institute. The artist began his artistic career as a painter and a student of Hans Hoffman. He gradually turned to sculpture because it enabled him to place humans in actual space. Like his fellow Pop Artists, Segal attempted to demystify art and make it ordinary and accessible. Segal often said that his goal was to capture the paradox of individual solitude in the midst of populous places. These figures are placed in an actual environment of a mundane situation, such as a lunch counter, movie ticket booth, bus interior, or, as in this case, a park bench. His works are usually created in plaster cast from an actual human figure and sometimes recast in bronze. Segal’s work expresses the loneliness and tensions of modern life. His sculptures have often been compared to the paintings of Edward Hopper, a fellow American who imbued his work with a sence of mystery and loneliness. Both men captured the moment by creating snapshots of modern life.

Three Figures and Four Benches, is an excellent example of Segal’s work as three figures are posed in an ordinary situation as if frozen in time. The three figures, intentionally rough and unfinished, sit near each other but do not communicate with each other. All three figures stare off into space wrapped up in their own thoughts. The viewer is forces to contemplate their relation-ship to each other and with their own environment.