June 5, 2018

George Segal, Collective Bargaining, 1975

In 1976 the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers presented George Segal’s sculpture, Collective Bargaining, to the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University. The sculpture was commissioned by the Institute of Collective Bargaining in the year prior. The Walter P. Reuther Library is home to North America’s largest collection of labor archives- including the archives of unions and of Wayne State- and is located on the Wayne State University campus in Detroit. This relief sculpture stands in the lobby of the library, granting public access to students and passersby alike. It encourages the practice of collective bargaining: the negotiation of wages, benefits, and other concerns with working conditions between employees and employers.

Collective Bargaining was produced by means of Segal’s iconic plaster technique- live models posed for Segal as he cast their silhouettes with plaster-soaked bandages. After allowing them to dry, he then separated the living from the constructed, resulting in life-size figures within the relief sculpture. The two figures interact- one with his arms crossed and intently listening to the other who seems to be gesturing with reason. The words “collective bargaining” float above their heads, and just below to the right continues “out of conflict-accord,” completing a phrase that helps viewers understand the presented situation. Segal’s plaster contouring of live models makes his sculpture living in its own right; it adds an essence of humanity- more prone to faults and reasoning with leftover traces of its production adding to this effect. The white of the plaster is melancholic, making the figures anonymous and ambiguous in a universal tone that speaks for a group of people. Segal’s own process of labor contributes to the overall theme of the relationship between workers and their labor; workers and each other; and workers and their employers. Being situated in a city comprised of a working-class majority that has historically been exploited by a ruling minority, Segal’s sculpture calls for the unification of workers to demand full reward for their labor.

George Segal is a major figure in the American Pop-art movement. Unlike the other pop artists, however, his work focuses on how people function within a fast-paced consumer culture, an interest he may have inherited from his experience growing up in a working class family with Jewish-immigrant parents from Eastern Europe. He is best known for his free-standing figurative sculptures created by the same technique as Collective Bargaining. He studied at Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, and New York University where he graduated with a degree in teaching.

Written by Danielle Cervera Bidigare

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