George Segal, a New York native, studied as a painter at various schools around the city, graduating from New York University and earning a master's degree at nearby Rutgers University. An abstractionist painter, Segal began making sculpture in 1958. From the start he cast his works from life, using family, friends, neighbors, and the occasional professional as models. Segal, along with Ed Kienholtz and Red Grooms, began to extend the definition of sculpture by working with total environments, literal space, and real objects. From its first appearance, Segal's sculpture was linked to Pop art, although over time its connection to the Social Realism in American art most commonly associated with Edward Hopper's paintings has become more apparent.

In The Tightrope Walker, Segal's subject is an athlete in action, but his treatment of her is anticlassical and notably unheroic. His tightrope walker, lacking the muscular definition of a well-toned athlete, avoids the idealization of form common to most Western art. The distracting ambiance of the circus is also absent. Perched on a real rope, the sculpture is installed realistically above the viewer's head. There is, however, no drumroll to accompany her walk, no gaudy spotlight to dramatize her performance. Instead, the ordinary light in which the work is seen may seem almost cruel, exposing the crudeness of Segal's casting process. The woman's face is imperfect and her body ragged, almost as if she were wrapped in bandages. Rather than celebrating the tension and grace of an athlete, the process preserves the slackness of the model as she waits for the plaster to harden.