Woman in a Doorway (II)

In this installation, an outer door opens onto a shabby hallway where a woman stands in a doorway; the artist gives no indication as to why she is there. ‘Woman in a Doorway (II)’ epitomizes a type of sculpture known as environmental art, in which an artwork occupies a large amount of (outdoor) space. For the American artist George Segal, the medium of plaster opened up a radical new direction in his artistic practice. From 1958 onwards, he focused entirely on this medium, creating casts of live models that he mounted on an armature of wire or cast in bronze and painted. Segal revealed situations devoid of morality or sentiment. His characters – whose whiteness gives them a ghost-like quality – often seem engrossed in an inner world.