EDITORIAL: Gift to library a fitting tribute to local artist

George Segal sculpture to find home in South Brunswick Public Library.

   World-renowned artist George Segal called South Brunswick his home for 60 years.
   So it is only fitting that one of his sculptures will soon find a permanent home at the South Brunswick Public Library.
   The George and Helen Segal Foundation, which oversees the artists’ legacy and provides grants to working artists, has donated "Couple Against a Grey Brick Wall," a 1986 work that shows a couple seated on a brass bench next to an empty third seat.
   "We’re excited about giving this piece to the South Brunswick Public Library," Susan Kutliroff, Mr. Segal’s niece and a member of the foundation’s board of directors, told us last week. "He lived all his adult life in the town, and for South Brunswick to do this is very nice. I’m sure George would be pleased."
   South Brunswick’s residents should be pleased, as well.
   Mr. Segal was an artist with an international reputation whose works include "Depression Bread Line," a sculpture for the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial in Washington; "Kent State — Abraham and Isaac," a sculpture on the campus of Princeton University in memory of the 1970 Kent State shootings; and "The Commuters, Next Departure" at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. In addition, Montclair State University acquired a noted work by the artist, "Street Crossing," and opened a 7,200-square-foot George Segal Gallery in January.
   Despite his fame, he maintained his local ties, spending the bulk of his years living on the same chicken farm his parents bought during the Depression, quietly working on his art and lending his talents when he could to friends and to the community as a whole.
   This local commitment makes the choice of "Couple Against a Grey Brick Wall" especially gratifying. The subjects of the sculpture were avid library users Millicent and David Kutliroff, the sister and brother-in-law of Mr. Segal’s wife, Helen, and longtime residents themselves. Mr. Kutliroff died in 2002, but Ms. Kutliroff continues to live in South Brunswick.
   Details on the South Brunswick installation — which has never been exhibited in public — have yet to be worked out, including where it will be displayed at the library and when it will be installed. Once the sculpture is deeded over to the township, it will be covered with a protective coating until its unveiling.
   The placement of the sculpture — which was done in paint over plaster and is about 8 feet by 8 feet — will allow Mr. Segal’s legacy to live on in the community he called home for most of his life.