In every search there is always a degree of unforeseeability, a sort of troubling feeling, a wonder after the work is complete, after the conclusion. The part of the work that surprises me invariably leads to new works. Call it a glimpse; often this glimpse occurs because of an obscurity which arises from a precise resolution, - Richard Serra
American artist Richard Serra died on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. He was 85.
Serra was best known for his large, minimalist sculptures, often site-specific, that allowed viewers to walk in, around and through his works.
Serra was born on November 2, 1938 in San Francisco, the second of three sons. His mother encouraged his artwork and, even in adulthood, Serra always carryied a notebook and pen.
His father was a pipe fitter in a shipyard in San Francisco, where Serra saw the launching of a giant tanker. "All the raw material that I needed is contained in the reserve of this memory.” Serra said. As a teenager, he spent summers working in steel mills in the Bay Area.
Serra graduated with a BA in English literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1961. He went on to study painting at Yale, and received both a BA and in Art History and an MFA in 1964.
During a trip to Paris and Italy, on a traveling scholarship, Serra saw the works of great artists and felt that his talent for painting could not surpass what he had seen, and he began experimenting with sculpture.
He moved to New York in 1966 and began creating sculptures from rubber, fiberglass and lead, using verbs like roll, tear, prop as dictates for each work.
He garnered much recognition in the 1970s, when he began to make the enormous, site-specific works for which he is best known, and drawing and etching, which Serra considered an integral part of his practice.
Serra's first solo exhibition was in 1966 at Galleria Salita in Rome. His first solo exhibition in the US was at the Leo Castelli Warehouse in New York in 1969.His first solo museum exhibition was held at the Pasadena Art Museum in California in 1970.
Two retrospectives of his works were held at MoMA; the first in 1986, the second in 2007.
At this month’s Los Angeles Frieze 2024, an oilstick drawing by Serra sold for $2 million, leading all sales at Frieze,
Richard Serra is survived by his wife of 43 years, Clara Weyergraf, a German-born art historian who wrote several books about Serra’s sculptures. Serra died at his home in Orient, New York. The cause of death was pneumonia.
References:
Roberta Smith. Richard Serra, Who Recast Sculpture on a Massive Scale, Dies at 85. The New York Times. March 26, 2024.
Valentina Di Liscia. Artist Richard Serra, Who Warped Space With Steel, Dies at 85. Hyperallergic. March 27, 2024.
Hrag Vartanian. Discussing the Sculptures of Richard Serra with Hal Foster. Hyperallergic. January 24, 2019.
Karen K. Ho. $2 M. Work By Richard Serra Leads Sales at Frieze Los Angeles 2024. ArtNews. March 1, 2024.
