AK Segan art
The Oregonian - Portland, Oregon
ARTS & LEISURE p. 2M - E 7
by ALAN HAYAKAWA, of the Oregonian staff
september 25, 1982
At the Mittleman Jewish Community Center, Kenneth Akiva Segan of Seattle has hung a selection of his prints, to be exhibited through Oct. 15
Segan draws on Judaic heritage and his own experiences and fantasy, for his subjects. The twenty etchings and aquatints, some of which have been hand-colored after printing, range from portraits of the founders of Zionism to salutes to great figures in art to landscapes Segan has blended in his mind to fantastic seascapes and dream visions. My reaction was that the portraits worked best. The portraits of Zionist leaders Eliezer ben Yehuda and Ahad Ha'am, of Elie Wiesel, who is chairman of the President's Commission on the Holocaust, and of Albert Einstein all are strong, controlled statements that go beyond recognizable likenesses to say something about the people shown. In the Einstein portrait, Segan does more with less, letting the great thinker's image float in the void of white space on the page, suggesting the limitness of Einstein's universe. Maybe it's because in the portraiture Segan has set himself specific objectives and restrained his methods that he has most success there. In some of the other works, like "Dream of the Cartographer," he exercises less control, and the result is a proliferation of images which degenerate into unreadability. Segan is strongest with bold lines, weakest when he gets too far into the fine details. Perhaps some of those would work better in a medium other than engraving. ~ ~ ~
(at right: Reproduction of a 1977 etching, "America, America, Sing Me the Song of the George Washington Bridge.")
Art caption: LET'S CROSS THAT BRIDGE -- "Sing Me the Song of the George Washington Bridge," Kenneth Akiva Segan's intaglio print, is montage of images. Segan's work is on display at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.