The Kennedy Museum of Art has a new exhibit from an artist who helped bring art back to a more common experience.
Friday, the museum will display famed artist George Segal’s Blue Jean Series.
It is the first time the Kennedy Museum has shown the eight pieces together, said Jessica Law, associate curator and public relations and guest services manager for the Kennedy Museum.
Despite being known more for his sculptures, this series will highlight a different aspect of Segal’s work that the public doesn’t typically see, Law said.
Released in 1975, the Blue Jean Series depicts chest-down portraits of men and women wearing blue jeans, which Rosemarie Basile, assistant director for the School of Art, said symbolize the ruggedness of American culture.
“I think blue jeans say America like not much else,” she said. “(The series is) not about individual people. It’s about the individuality and ruggedness of the culture. It goes back to that saying, ‘If you want to know what’s important to a culture, don’t read their history books, look at their art.’ ”
Having these types of displays at the Kennedy Museum offers an important opportunity for art students, said Barbara Jewell, a junior studying art history and German in the Honors Tutorial College.
“Exhibiting such famous artists’ work at the Kennedy creates an unparalleled educational opportunity for students, who study both the practical creation of creative work and the history of art in America at large,” she said.
Basile said the exhibits expand on what is learned in the classroom by providing a real-life display that can spark inspiration.
Segal and other pop art artists brought art back to the common people after the previous style, modern abstract expressionism, which was heavily theoretical and elitist, said Basile.
“(Pop art) was the notion of taking everyday objects and turning them into art,” she said. “You never think about portraiture that includes blue jeans … It’s taking what is common and elevating it through art.”
Segal is also well-known for his involvement in the first “Happening,” typically meaning performance art.
“I often tell students to think about it as the difference between listening to a CD and going to a concert,” Basile said. “It’s the experiential nature of being in the moment.”
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