George Segal
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
This Segal retrospective, the first since a 1978–79 exhibit organized by the Walker Art Center, reveals how individualistic the artist’s approach to the Pop idiom was. Unlike Warhol, Oldenburg, and the Pop mainstream, which homed in on consumer-oriented irony, Segal was an intense critic of post-war alienation and depersonalization. His identification with those living on the fringes of society is palpable in the white plaster figures, presented in forlorn isolation or in groups, for which he is best known. These sculptural installations from the ’60s present as devastating a portrait of inner-city