George Segal

Walk, Don't Walk
1976

A sculpture installation featuring three life-sized figures standing on a platform, with a pedestrian traffic light pole beside them displaying a lit "DON'T WALK" sign in red letters. The figures and the base appear to be crafted in a monochromatic, white or light gray material, giving the impression of being covered in dust or ash. The background is dark, contrasting with the light color of the sculpture.

Not on view

Date
1976

Classification
Sculpture

Medium
Plaster, cement, metal, painted wood and electric light

Dimensions
Overall: 109 1/8 × 72 × 74 3/8in. (277.2 × 182.9 × 188.9 cm)

Accession number
79.4a-f

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Louis and Bessie Adler Foundation, Inc., Seymour M. Klein, President, the Gilman Foundation, Inc., the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc. and the National Endowment for the Arts

Rights and reproductions
© The George & Helen Segal Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

API
artworks/1796

Audio

June 15, 2015
Eleonora Nagy on Walk, Don’t Walk by George Segal

In 99 Objects

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June 15, 2015
Eleonora Nagy on Walk, Don’t Walk by George Segal

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George Segal, Walk, Don’t Walk, 1976

In America Is Hard to See

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George Segal, Walk, Don’t Walk, 1976

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Narrator: Walk, Don’t Walk. Walk, Don’t Walk. George Segal included a real street sign in this sculpture—something we see every day. Take a look at the people standing underneath the sign. To make these figures, Segal used plaster-soaked medical bandages, which he wrapped right onto real people’s clothes, faces, and bodies. When the bandages harden he’d peel them off, and shape them into molds that he filled with plaster to make a sculpture. This means that these figures’ eyes, noses, and mouths come directly from real people’s features. But there’s almost no color, which gives them a kind of ghostly, anonymous feeling. Can you tell what’s on their minds? Do you think they’re doing anything special? Segal paid close attention to the way people walked around cities—he thought they seemed like they were hypnotized.