ART-PRESENTATION: Richard Serra -Ramble Drawings

Richard Serra’s “Equal” (1/5-24/7/15) a room-size sculpture installation at David Zwirner Gallery, was among one of the best exhibitions of 2015. The same year (26/9-24/10/15) he sowed at the Gagosian Gallery his Ramble Drawings, a series of 60 new drawings. In them, Richard Serra takes that medium someplace he hasn’t before, toward gentleness and modest size.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gagosian Gallery Archive

“Ramble Drawings” exhibition gets its title from the series of sculptures that the artist was working on at the time of its creation. The drawings were produced on handmade paper, which is why the size of every piece is slightly different. Richard Serra uses lithography crayon and black pastel powder to create a variety of dense, atmospheric pieces. Some drawings were made with the method of two sheet pressure transfer, that leaves behind traces of metal tools used in its creation, thus shifting the attention from the artwork itself to the artistic process. Other artworks were produced with a more traditional technique of leaving direct markings on a single paper sheet. In this series of drawings Serra creates a curtain before the viewer, as he attempts to once again search out the dense forms that proliferate his sculptural work. Marks from the various monochromatic media he uses accumulate until a density appears that takes the shape of undulating form, seeming to grasp at the textural surfaces of his usual industrial sculptural materials. The artist maintains a strong spatial awareness through his use of black and white in both his drawings and his prints, many of which imply motion, potential energy, and gravity. This series of drawings reveals a new approach, at once as methodical as his printmaking work and more spontaneous. Though modest in scale, Serra’s two-dimensional works are no less dynamic than his behemoth sculptures, and these two genres of work complement each other in a powerful and inspiring oeuvre.

Info: Gagosian Gallery, 4 rue de Ponthieu, Paris, Duration: 28/1-2/4/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.gagosian.com