1. Sculpture Casting Unit
People have been making sculptures as far back as we know. We are going to look at a very brief timeline of sculptures and how they were influenced by their society. Also, while looking at these images, I want you to think about how art and specifically sculptures can be seen as a visual record of cultural, political, scientific and religious history. At the end, I am going to ask for some reasons why you think that they could be considered visual records of history.
Throughout time artists have had a major influence coming from the society in which they live. Because of this, when looking at different works of art and sculptures, they almost take on the role of being a visual record of cultural, political, scientific, and religious history.

2. George Segal
George Segal was born and grew up in the Bronx in November He realized that he wanted to be an artist when he was in grammar school. For the most part he started off painting and sculpting. While teaching, one of his student’s who was the wife of a chemist at the nearby Johnson and Johnson Laboratories, brought some recently perfected medical bandages to one of his classes. This discovery propelled Segal into the phase of his career that has brought him world fame. At that moment, George Segal became a sculptor, at first he was a painter who did some sculptures, now it was the opposite. These cast sculptures started off lacking detail but gradually started to become more concerned with replicating reality.

3. George Segal is a sculptor who mainly works with the casting of bodies and objects. Casting is a method of reproducing a three dimensional object by pouring a hardening liquid into a mold bearing it’s best impression. In the past most casting was done with bronze, but there are also many other materials that you can cast with. All castings require a mold, a release agent, and casting material. For Segal’s work, he uses a real person for his mold, Nivea cream for the release agent, and Johnson and Johnson medical bandages that are treated with plaster. To cast his “objects”, he does it one section at a time and just wets the pretreated bandages and wraps the object or person. When finished, he cuts them out of it and uses the same pretreated bandages to reconnect the seems.

4. Here he is reconnecting the parts to make the whole body

5. Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg Monchengladbach, West Germany
Man at a Table
1961
Plaster, wood and glass
53 x 48 x 48in
Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg Monchengladbach, West Germany
This was the first casted body that Segal had done. This is actually a cast form of himself, he wrapped himself in the bandages and had his wife apply the plaster. He said that it was extreemly hard to remove the dried plaster and reconnect the pieces together.

6. Plaster, wood, chrome, Formica, Masonite, and fluorescent light
The Diner
Plaster, wood, chrome, Formica, Masonite, and fluorescent light
102 x 108 x 87 in
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

7. Painted plaster and painted wood 96 x 95 x 52 in
Street Meeting
1977
Painted plaster and painted wood
96 x 95 x 52 in
Bruce and Judith Eissner

8. Portrait of Meyer Schapiro 1977 Painted plaster 37 7/8 x 26 x 12 in
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

9. Dancers
72 x 144
Plaster

10. Woman on White Wicker Rocker 1989 Bronze with Whte patina
42 x 33

11. Mark Jenkins
Tape castor

12. Babies
2006

13. Skull
2006

14. Embed
Street Installations
Date: 6/06 Location: DC

15. Date: 6/20/05 Location: Fairfax, VA
Nature Installations
Date: 6/20/05 Location: Fairfax, VA

16. Cling wrap 53x14x14 in. Packing Tape 2005

17. Street Installations
Date: 2/06 Baltimore, MD

18. Date: 10/1/06 Location: Fairfax, VA
Nature Installations
Date: 10/1/06 Location: Fairfax, VA

19. Date: 6/20/05 Location: Fairfax, VA
Nature Installations
Date: 6/20/05 Location: Fairfax, VA

20. Shoes to Fill 9x12x42 in. Tape 2003

21. New Kids Height 41in. (each) Packing Tape 2005

22. Street Installations
Date: 4/06 Washington, DC

23. Date: 8/05 Location: 16th St, DC
Street Installations
Date: 8/05 Location: 16th St, DC

24. Street Installations
Date: 6/05 Location: 16th, DC

25. References segalfoundation.org
witcombe.sbc.edu/.../images/willendorf-large.jpg
ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/.../tetrarchs.jpg
segalfoundation.org

26. Teachers Sample