Plaster ArtistsBen White

‘Three people on four benches’

Fireside Chat

George Segal

George Segal was born in New York on November 26, 1924, to a Jewish couple who emigrated from Eastern Europe. His parents first settled in the Bronx where they ran a butcher shop and later moved to a New Jersey poultry farm.

During World War II, he had to curtail his studies in order to help on the family poultry farm. He later attended Pratt, Cooper Union, and finally New York University where he furthered his art education and received a teaching degree in 1949. It was during these years that Segal met other young artists eager to make statements based on the real world rather than the pure abstractionism that was all the rage. He joined the 10th Street scene, painting and concentrating on expressionist, figurative themes.

In 1957, he was included in “Artists of the New York School: Second Generation,” an exhibit at the Jewish Museum. For the next three years he showed annually at the Hansa. The path from painting to sculpture and the specific form of the sculpture is embodied in a series of events from the late 1950s. In 1956, Segal was introduced to the Hansa Gallery and its’ artistic influence. The following year, Allan Kaprow chose the Segal farm as the scene of his first Happening – live art with an environmental sensibility. In 1958 Segal began to experiment in sculpture and had a one-man show at the Green Gallery in 1960, featuring several plaster figures.

George Segal

Stephen Antonson

Today, celebrated plaster artisan Stephen Antonson, crowned the master of plaster byArchitectural Digest, reintroduces the age-old medium to the interior design trade in his collection of furnishings, lighting and accessories. 

Working out of his Brooklyn, New York atelier, Antonson creates every piece by hand. He paints plaster onto his designs in layers with a brush, then meticulously sculpts and sands it repeatedly to achieve objects of surreal beauty. A classically trained sculptor and painter, the engaging designer taps into his broad knowledge of these disciplines to inform his work. He has recently added bronze to his offerings. Antonson welcomes collaboration; he has worked with dozens of clients to create original one-of-a-kind, custom pieces.  

Stephen Antonson

The Age of Bronze:

The Kiss

Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin was a French artist, born in November 1840 – 1917. He was very well known for his ability to create complex models, usually of the human form, in clay and plaster and his most well known works are The walking man, The age of bronze, The kiss and The Thinker.

Auguste Rodin

Artists of the future

Spirits of the Hearth

Laury Dizengremel

I'm 58 years old (born in Paris in 1954) - and see myself first as a sculptor and second as a person who has lived a full life: former dancer, former translator, designer and sculpture teacher, but also mother, dog lover, poet, occasional photographer, songwriter, web designer, co-organizer for many years of an international annual Festival, concerned "world citizen" who worked on a number of community art projects such as the Arte Para Todos project organised by the United Nations of Honduras, or the Vale of Belvoir Arts Projects including the 3Rs: Reclaimed, Recycled, Raw Sculpture Trail.

Laury Dizengremel

Sculpture Forms

Clare Wigg

My name is Clare Wigg and I studied graphic design at the Norwich School of Art & Design. Since qualifying, I have worked in London as a graphic designer focusing on corporate identity and packaging design. In 2010, I decided to return to a love of mine that I first discovered while studying at school for my A Level in art – Sculpture.My work begins its life as a block of plaster of paris which I then carve into to create my organic and sometimes graphical, contemporary sculptures. During their creation, I like to explore how their shape and form is set free from it’s original block shape, in varying degrees. At times I also like to create the sculptures so that they give the impression that they are created using 2 or 3 forms that connect together to create the final piece, when in reality they are created from the same block of plaster of paris.

Clare Wigg

La Muse

George

Constantin Brancusi 

Constantin Brâncuși was a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered a pioneer of modernism, one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century, Brâncuși is called the patriarch of modern sculpture.

Constantin Brancusi