Gay Liberation Monument

George Segal's Gay Liberation honors the gay rights movement and the uprising at the Stonewall Inn opposite this park in Sheridan Square in 1969. The Stonewall Inn at 51-53 Christopher Street began as two stables built during the 1840s, was combined into one building in 1930 for Bonnie's Stone Wall teahouse, later housed the Stonewall Inn Restaurant, and in 1967 became an unlicensed private club, bar, and dance hall serving Greenwich Village's gay community. In the early hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a fight broke out, and 13 people were arrested. Patrons and a growing crowd refused to disperse and clashed with police reinforcements, and after word spread, hundreds gathered the next day to protest the crackdown and advocate legalization of gay bars. Further protests followed in early July, and on July 27 activists organized the first gay and lesbian march from Washington Square to the Stonewall. These events are often cited as the beginning of the gay rights movement in the United States. In 1979, arts patron Peter Putnam commissioned Gay Liberation, and although Segal was not the first artist approached, he accepted under the requirement that the work be loving, caring, affectionate, and equally represent men and women. Born and raised in New York City, Segal settled in 1940 on a farm in South Brunswick, New Jersey, where he lived and worked until his death; he became one of the most important and influential American artists of the late 20th century, with work in more than 65 public collections, including The Commuters, The Holocaust, and tableaux for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. His composition for Gay Liberation consists of two standing males and two seated females on the park's northern boundary in naturalistic poses, created by making bronze casts from plaster molds of human models and adding metal replicas of standard park benches, with an unearthly white painted finish that gives a realistic yet enigmatic effect. The project won city approval in 1982, but installation was delayed for a decade by public opposition, a planned park renovation, and the death of a sponsor. On June 23rd, Mayor David Dinkins and Parks Commissioner Betsy Gottbaum dedicated the monument. During that intervening decade, opposition and rancor subsided, the AIDS epidemic devastated the gay community and deepened the impact of the sculpture's mute figures, and in March 2000 the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park were designated a National Historic Landmark for their role in the gay rights movement, as Segal's sculpture became a popular pilgrimage site.

New York, New York · United States