ART-PRESENTATION: Richard Serra

 

One of the preeminent sculptors of our era, Richard Serra, has long been acclaimed for his challenging and innovative work, which emphasizes materiality and an engagement between the viewer, the site, and the work. In the early ‘60s, Serra and the Minimalist artists of his generation turned to unconventional, industrial materials and began to accentuate the physical properties of their art.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gagosian Gallery Archive

Two exhibitions of Richard Serra are on presentation at Gagosian New York, “NJ-1” and “Above Below Betwixt Between, Every Which Way, Silence (For John Cage), Through”, with four new large-scale steel sculptures and an Installation Drawing. Over the years, Serra has expanded his spatial and temporal approach to sculpture and has focused primarily on large-scale work, including many site-specific works that engage with a particular architectural, urban, or landscape setting. One of his key artworks, “Arc”, commissioned in 1981 by the U.S. government for Federal Plaza in New York City, brought heated discussions about its artistic purpose and its effect on the public space. The piece, which measured 36 metres long and 4 metres high, was positioned in such a manner that movement through the plaza was impeded, thus forcing people to engage with the sculpture by walking around it to cross the plaza. After a public hearing in 1985 concerning myriad complaints about the piece and a subsequent challenge by Serra, the work was destroyed in 1989.  In March 2014, Serra’s “East-West/West-East”, a site-specific sculpture located at a remote desert location stretching more than a half-mile through Qatar’s Ras Brouq nature reserve, was unveiled.

Info: “NJ-1”, Gagosian Gallery, 522 West 21st Street, New York & “Above Below Betwixt Between, Every Which Way, Silence (For John Cage), Through”, Gagosian Gallery, 555 West 24th Street, New York, Duration: 7/5-29/7/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.gagosian.com