Segal’s Sacrifices

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Today I’m
thinking about
two related works
by the same artist,
George Segal
.

It’s
impossible
to understand the
meaning of these artworks
without knowing one of
the stories from the
Old Testament,
so,
at the risk of
losing my audience
before even getting to
the artwork itself, I’ll
try to summarize the
story as briefly
as possible
:

In the
book of Genesis,
Abraham and Sarah
are old and childless,
but God promises many
descendants to them.
Sarah bears a son
and they name
him Isaac.
Years
later,
God tells
Abraham,
“Take your son,
your only son Isaac,
whom you love, and
go to the land of Moriah,
and offer him there as a
burnt offering on one
of the mountains of
which I shall
tell you.”
GEN22:2

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(what?)

Abraham
obeys, traveling
with his son for
three days to a
place where
he built an
altar
.
He bound
his son, placed
him on the altar,
and picked up
the knife
…

But the
angel of the
LORD called to him
from heaven and said,
“Abraham, Abraham!”
And he said,
“Here I am.” 
He said,
“Do not lay
your hand on the
boy or do anything
to him, for now I know
that you fear God, seeing
you have not withheld
your son, your only
son, from me.” 

.
And
Abraham
lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold,
behind him was a ram,
caught in a thicket
by his horns.
And Abraham
went and took the
ram and offered it up
as a burnt offering
instead of his
son.

Genesis 22:11-13

I don’t fully grasp the
meaning of this story, but
I think I understand the
roles of all four of the
primary characters
:
a father,
his son,
an angel,
and the ram
.

Okay,
that’s
enough
background.

We’re moving on…

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Segal’s First
Commission

In 1973,
George Segal
was invited to
make a sculpture
for an auditorium
in Israel
.
He
chose the
biblical story of
Abraham and Isaac
for its theme
.
He says,

I decided
to leave out the
angel and the ram,
and still the drama to
a massive horizontal
and vertical, with
the knife just
beginning to
turn away
from the
body
.
All the
emphasis
is inside of
Abraham’s
head.

George Segal

Here’s a photograph
of what he submitted
:

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In
this
scene,
Abraham
is standing
over his son,
preparing
for the
kill
.

His
right hand
holding a knife,
his left hand
clenched
in a fist
.

At this moment
he is thinking that his
firstborn child will
be an offering
to God
.

The angel has not
yet appeared to
rescue him
.

No ram
is present
to replace
him
.
.
.

-=< O >=-

I wonder
what the board
of directors had in
mind when offering
this commission
.

What kind
of artwork were
they hoping for
?

Did they
have a message
in mind
?

The scene
Segal submitted
was not a story of
redemption, because
there is no suggestion
of the angel or the
ram in this
image
.

What
were they
hoping to get
???

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When the work
was completed and
installed in Tel Aviv,
the response was
immediate
.

Some criticized
his use of well-known
people as models
.
The model
for Abraham was a
popular fellow artist,
wearing blue jeans
.

Others commented on
the fact that, at the time,
young men and women
were actively being
conscripted into
military service
.
They saw this
image as a message
of victimized youth
being sacrificed
by an older
generation
.

The commissioners
rejected the work, but
eventually approved it
.
Then it was withdrawn
,
then it was re-instated
,
then removed again
.
then re-installed
.

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Did the artist deliver?

Were both parties satisfied?
Was it appropriate for the
setting and the audience?
Was it too controversial?

(I don’t know)

We will have to
leave those questions
unanswered for now
,
because that’s not
the artwork that
we’re looking
at today!

(nope)

Let’s
keep going
…

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In 1970, students
were protesting the
Vietnam War at many
universities. In May of
that year, the National
Guard was called in to
Kent State University
to help maintain
control
.
Thirteen
people were shot,
four students
died
.

The song “Ohio”,
written and performed by
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
commemorated the event.
Here’s an online version
:

(I’m showing my age now,
but the CSNY album with
the song “Ohio” was the
first album that I ever
bought with my own
money. Like many
of you, I grew up
in a time of
protest)

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Another
attempt to
commemorate
the tragedy was
a sculpture by
George Segal
.

The
Second
Commission

The Mildred Andrews Fund
in Cleveland commissioned
Segal to create a memorial
to the students who were
killed at Kent State
…

He
designed
a new sculpture,
but used the same
theme that he used
for the previous
commission

(!!!)

the same
biblical story

the same scene

the same characters

“Abraham and Isaac”

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What we see (again)
is a father making
preparations to
kill his son in
the name
of God
.

(before the arrival
of angel and ram)

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In the
previous
section I asked,
“What were they
hoping to get”
?

After
seeing this
second commission,
and the artist’s second
attempt to deliver the
same message, I ask,
“What is the artist
trying to say?”

Segal
replied to
the question
:

“Basically,
the piece calls
on older people who
have the power of life
and death over their
children to exercise
love, compassion,
and restraint.”

George Segal

If I was a
student attending
Kent State University,
I don’t think I would
enjoy the feelings I
would have when
walking past
this every
day
.

After
discussing
Segal’s proposal,
Kent State officials
withdrew the
commission
saying,

“It was thought
inappropriate to
commemorate the
deaths of four and
wounding of nine
others
…
by a statue
which appears
to represent an act
of violence about
to be committed.”

28 August 1978

The bronze
cast was moved to
Princeton University,
where it stands today
:

-=< O >=-

I don’t like
this piece of art.
If it was given to
me, I wouldn’t
accept it
.

Maybe
some opportunities
for artistic expression
are more important
than likability
,
but
in this case,
I don’t see how his
use of this biblical story
contributes to a memorial
for students killed by
American troops
.

The story of
Abraham and Isaac
is about faith in God
and the hope of
redemption
.

Segal’s chooses to
place us in the middle
of the story, leaving the
angel and ram out of the
scene, and leaving us
only the picture of a
father about to
kill his son
.

He gives us the
fear, the violence and
the brutality of the idea
without giving us the
faith, hope and love
.

He
doesn’t
give us the
redemption
.

-=< O >=-

So,
in my
opinion,
the artist used
this biblical story
for the wrong reasons
.

I will continue
to think about this
art, and maybe that
is the ultimate goal
of an artist, but in
this case, I think
it is a missed
opportunity
.

Anyway,
Thank You
for inspiring me
to write about
this today,
Mr. Segal!

-=< O >=-

&
Thank You
to Jane Dillenberger
for introducing me
to this story
.

Her essay,
“George Segal’s Abraham
and Isaac: Some Iconographic
Reflections” was published in
Art, Creativity & the Soul
(1995 Continuum)
pp. 105-124

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