He used furniture, windows and walls, parts of automobiles, buses or subway cars to make familiar but anonymous scenes of ordinary people. Segal created what he called “assembled environments” for his sculpted figures. He covered the model’s hair with Nivea cream, a lotion that allowed the bandages to be gently removed without pulling the hair. He molded the lower half of the body next. The model had to remain inside the cast as it gradually hardened, then was gently removed. The artist added more plaster to accentuate details, shaping the bandages to emphasize the back and shoulders, the folds, seams, cuffs and collars of the clothes. The model’s upper torso was covered with plaster-permeated bandages that had been dipped into pails of warm water before being shaped around the body, covering the clothes. In Depression Bread Line, he himself was one of the models (the fourth figure in the sculpture). ![]() Segal chose models for his sculptures from his group of friends and acquaintances in the field of art. Their experience of poverty, hunger, and inability to support themselves and their families is conveyed soundlessly but eloquently by their forlorn postures.Īlthough this sculpture is made of bronze, Segal is more widely recognized for his white plaster sculptures of figures set into what he called “assembled environments.” To make his plaster sculptures, Segal spent a long time in preparation-deciding on his models, collecting the necessary clothes and assorted props, prepping the models with the right mood and feeling, deciding on the pose, drawing around the model’s feet on the concrete floor to make sure that the position would be correct for each stage of casting, and then casting the model in three stages, each of which took about forty-five minutes. They seem ordinary, real and human, familiar but almost ghostly. Their coat collars are worn, their pants and coats shapeless. Despite their physical proximity, they seem isolated from each other, too dejected to engage with one another. They are of different heights and different ages, their faces sharing feelings of resignation and fear, but also determination. Each man stares despondently at the back of the person ahead. Five men, each wearing an overcoat and a hat, stand about a foot apart in line before an old brick wall. This 3500 pound bronze sculpture gives a profound visual interpretation of the devastating physical, psychological, and emotional effects of the Depression era. FDR was elected president in 1932 on the strength of his “New Deal” platform that promised economic recovery. In Depression Bread Line, five destitute men stand in a line waiting for food, like the hungry thousands who stood at doors of churches and soup kitchens in cities like New York and Chicago.ĭepression Bread Line was originally commissioned for part of a new United States Parks Service memorial to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established on the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., in 1997. Hungry and jobless citizens roamed the country looking for work and food. ![]() Unemployment soared throughout the United States to affect one out of every four workers, and farm income fell by fifty percent. Primary industries such as mining and lumbering stalled, crop prices fell, and manufacturing businesses slowed or halted production. During this difficult period, which affected the whole world, economies faltered in both industrialized and non-industrialized countries. The large sculpture Depression Bread Line by George Segal portrays the experience of many urban Americans who suffered from hunger during the 1930s Great Depression.
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