New Jersey Nightly News; 58; A Closer Look: George Segal - Kent State Sculptures

Kent State May 4th 1970 the memory is still haunting for students killed by the bullets of Ohio National Guardsman during a protest against the Vietnam War. Those killings caused a public outcry. Eight years later hoping to finally silence the critics can state officials agree to build a memorial on the spot where the students were shot. The challenge of that memorial went to George Segal a New Jersey sculptor best known for portraying everyday people doing everyday things. I was asked to do it and I read the whole situation as an extraordinary violation of human feeling. And I personally am convinced that humans are very valuable. I think we must have. That intensity of private feeling and the flowering of individuals but not at the expense pain murder of someone else to research the piece. Segal went to Kent State and visited the knoll where the students fell. I showed up.

And I was astounded to discover that it felt like times had stood still. I can't. It was a polarized situation. It was eight years later. This is eight years later and I had people telling me pulling me aside and saying more of the student should have been shot to teach them a lesson. And you know. All right. And being close pulled aside again and told confidentially there's a radical leftist plot to do in the university. SIEGEL came home to his studio a converted chicken farm in South Brunswick and began work. And this is what emerged in white surgical plaster. It's based on the biblical story of Abraham Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac to prove his faith to God in Siegel's version the elder figure holds a knife. The modern day Isaac dressed like a student lies at his feet his throat bared ready to die.

Siegel says the sculpture freezes not only the conflict at Kent State but the rift between young and old that tore the sixty's apart. You know I was in a peculiar position because. I'm the father of a college age daughter. You know so that you know it dawned on me that every college student in the United States is the child of a parent. I saw that it was I thought besides political dissent there was a tremendous moral crunch issue involved. The love of a parent for a child was involved. And then the terrible conflict say when a son gets a draft notice has to serve in a war. You know I was a mother and father feel upset. That's what the Kent State trustees felt when they saw Siegel's version of Abraham and Isaac. First they said it was too violent. Then they said it was too matic. So Segal agreed to etch some Old Testament verses in the base of the statue by

way of explanation. But finally the official said they really wanted something else altogether and he proposed that I do a sculpture of a young soldier carrying a gun a rifle being accosted by a nude or seminude young lady who was to gently use her femaleness to persuade the young soldier away from his military duty. Do you think that. I didn't think it was appropriate to the situation. Segal said he would take his sculpture elsewhere thank you and he carted it to Princeton University Princeton gratefully accept it despite all the flak and other strong statements against authority. SIEGEL doesn't really think of himself as a political artist. For him art reveals the inner feelings of man alone and men together. He explained his philosophy to

contributing reporter Sam Hunter an art history professor at Princeton. How do we deal with doctors how do we deal with tension how do I deal with all the real. Realistic moods we have the realistic states of mind that we experience every day. How do you picture it how do you make it concrete in your art. I'm pretty much an instrument. I've got you know I depend on my models. I depend on the sensitivity and the mental life of my models and their physical building. I prefer to live in a world where there is sensitivity. For and respect for individual human life. I think that the

greatest contribution anybody can make to civilized society is this respect for life.