Baby Dress (2009)

By Barbara Segal

Baby Dress, (2009), white alabaster. The finely carved lace and tiny folds of Baby Dress evoke both tender associations with early childhood and admiration for the sculptor’s virtuosic mastery of her materials. When creating her sumptuous sculptures, Segal draws upon personal powerful images: elegant childhood finery, American iconography, European architecture, and Baroque excess. One senses the history of stone carving in Segal’s contemporary works, which at times are highly emotive and, at others, quirky and witty. They always “… excite fascination and incredulity,” according to Judy Collischan, Ph.D., former director at the Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY Purchase. The New York Times said her works “defy the solidity of the onyx and the alabaster from which they were carved.”