SERRA, Richard

Creator

SERRA, RICHARD
b. United States, 1938-2024
American sculptor, Richard Serra, was born in San Francisco in 1938 and died in 2024. He is well known for his abstract, large-scale steel sculptures reaching up to 14 feet. Serra studied at UC Berkeley and Santa Barbara, and later attended Yale University to study painting. He was introduced to metalworking as a child through his father’s occupation, and worked in steel mills in his college years. Serra is not concerned with pictorial representation, but rather the sheer materiality of sculpture and how it interacts with real time and space. There is a timeless quality to Serra’s work, considering how it depends on the environment in which it inhabits. His large installations are unapologetic: blocking off a space or demanding viewers to alter their path of walking. Tilted Arc​​, one of Serra’s most controversial installations, occupied the New York City Federal Plaza from 1981 to 1989. It garnered so many complaints from civilians forced to walk through the plaza, that it was ultimately removed. This instance exemplifies Serra’s intention to challenge viewers’ perceptions of space, gravity, and weight.

Citation

SERRA, RICHARD, b. United States, 1938-2024, and American sculptor, Richard Serra, was born in San Francisco in 1938 and died in 2024. He is well known for his abstract, large-scale steel sculptures reaching up to 14 feet. Serra studied at UC Berkeley and Santa Barbara, and later attended Yale University to study painting. He was introduced to metalworking as a child through his father’s occupation, and worked in steel mills in his college years. Serra is not concerned with pictorial representation, but rather the sheer materiality of sculpture and how it interacts with real time and space. There is a timeless quality to Serra’s work, considering how it depends on the environment in which it inhabits. His large installations are unapologetic: blocking off a space or demanding viewers to alter their path of walking. Tilted Arc​​, one of Serra’s most controversial installations, occupied the New York City Federal Plaza from 1981 to 1989. It garnered so many complaints from civilians forced to walk through the plaza, that it was ultimately removed. This instance exemplifies Serra’s intention to challenge viewers’ perceptions of space, gravity, and weight., “SERRA, Richard,” UCSB ADA Museum Omeka, accessed November 25, 2024, http://art-collections.museum.ucsb.edu/items/show/4686.