Imposing and intimate, dangerous and beautiful, abstract and expressive, Richard Serra’s otherworldly steel sculptures, bent into gracefully curving shapes and modernist planes, stand in delicate balance. Tilted against one another, or simply against the air - paused in movement by the forces of gravity. His finished artworks are so massive, they require cranes to place them, and precise formulas for fabrication and positioning (calculated by computer programs and expert structural engineers), as nothing holds them up, except for Serra’s vision and these equations of mass and gravity.

Richard Serra Open Ended, 2007-2008 steel sculpture in museum setting — *Open Ended*, 2007-2008. Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via voorlinden.nl.

Born in 1938 in San Francisco, California, Serra’s father, a pipe fitter at the Marine shipyard, brought a four year old Serra along to the launching of a ship. The giant steel plated vessell, incredibly heavy on land, was transformed into something buoyant and floating on water, surprising him that, “...an object that heavy could become light, that that amount of tonnage could become lyrical…” (The Washington Post). Serra later said, “All the raw material that I needed is contained in the reserve of this memory, which has become a recurring dream…” (The New York Times).

Serra loved to draw as a child, and first entered the world of art through painting, attending the Yale School of Art and Architecture, where he studied under Bauhaus colorist, Josef Albers, alongside fellow artists Brice Marden and Chuck Close. Traveling through Europe for two years on a Fulbright Scholarship and Yale travel grant, he began moving from the 2D medium of painting, into more 3D explorations. He studied Brancusi’s sculptures in Paris, Velasquez’s manipulations of subject and object in the piece, Las Meninas, in Spain (which was influential, as it revealed to Serra that an artwork, even a painting, could require the viewer’s participation in it), and mounting his own avant garde art installation in Italy in 1966, featuring assemblages juxtaposing real and stuffed animals in cages. This last was his rebellious debut in the art world, and once back in New York City, he entered straight into the modern art scene.

Interested in the ways he could manipulate materials and coax them into new and interesting shapes, Serra created a poetic “verb list”, of all of the motions and actions he wished them to take. These included, “to enclose, to encircle, to hide, to erase, to bend, join, split, continue, and flow…”.

Richard Serra's "Verb List" for sculptures and art explorations — Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art via nytimes.com

Using this list as a guide and constraint, he experimented with vulcanized rubber (A Lift, 1967), latex (Scatterpiece, 1967), fiberglass, neon tubing (Belts, 1967), and lead (One Ton Prop, 1969, and melted lead in Splashings). In this era, process was more important than results, and in the spirit of play he would, “... use anything in relationship to anything as long as it was attached to a verb… “ (psacparis.com)

Serra spent six weeks in Kyoto, Japan, immersed in the Zen gardens and temples of Myoshi-Ji, where he was struck by the curving walking paths that wound through these spaces. Moving was integral to perceiving both the details and the entirety. It would take time to comprehend the whole. Influenced by these concepts of Uji (being-time / the meeting of time and space) and MA (the relevance of negative space), Serra began to incorporate experiencing into his art, rather than just making things to be looked at.

His sculptures invite interaction, beckoning inside with pathways through mysterious openings, curving girths to walk around, roofs to shelter under, and textured surfaces to touch.

Some, spiraling and curving in on themselves, open up to the sky in delicate apertures that can only be experienced from within.

And their exteriors age beautifully, taking on a textured metallic patina through time, the elements, and touch.

Serra rejected any sentimental interpretations of his work, or tendencies to reach for metaphors, preferring instead for the abstractness and objective realities of his pieces to speak for themselves (weight, scale, mass, shape, and material). He didn’t create in order to celebrate nouveau shapes, but to challenge ideas about space, and how we move through it, the volumes and voids around his pieces illuminating the relationships between movement, space, and time. With no core, no central focus, no beginning, and no end, his sculptures, the settings they sit in, the people who visit them, and their experiences are all a part of the whole, which makes up an installation.

In the 1970s Serra began working with what would become his most iconic material and aesthetic: self supported, tilting Cor-ten steel plates, that through precise, calculated postures and weight, would hold themselves up, without external supports (since 1969 every piece has been verified by structural engineers for safety).

In the beginning, several artworks in this style were deemed too disruptive for public spaces, and caused civic disturbances and controversy. Terminal, 1977 in Bochum, Germany, his first public piece sited in a truly urban setting, with pedestrian and street traffic surrounding it, became a politicized topic of public dialogue.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, Terminal, 1977 — *Terminal,* 1977. Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via nrw-skulptur.net.

Tilted Arc, 1981, was notoriously taken down eight years after it was first mounted. Commissioned by the General Services Administration (GSA), the twelve foot high, one hundred and twenty foot long elegantly curving piece of steel sliced through New York Federal Building’s open public plaza. When some of the employees of the building complained that the artwork was a dangerous eyesore, and petitioned to have it removed, the GSA agreed. Serra sued to keep it in place, but lost the case, and the sculpture was taken down, dismantled, and put into storage, where it remained. The incident only raised Serra’s profile.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, Tilted Arc — *Tilted Arc*, 1981. Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via wnyc.org.

Clara Clara, 1983, yo-yo’d across Paris for years. Originally designed for a Serra retrospective at The Centre Pompidou, the artwork was deemed too heavy for that location, weighing over 100 tons, and it was placed in the Jardin des Tuileries instead. Some thought that the piece’s modernist design disfigured that historical location, and in an echo of Tilted Arc’s story, a petition was signed for its removal. Clara-Clara was relocated to the Parc de Choisy, where it stayed for five years, and then was put into storage. It was temporarily reinstalled in the Jardin des Tuileries in 2008 for the Monumenta exhibition at the Grand Palais, but was again put into storage when the exhibition was over. There are now talks of bringing the piece back out into the public, and finding it a permanent home in the city.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, Clara-Clara, 1983, in le Jardin des Tuileries, Paris — *Clara Clara*, 1983. Photo by Yann Caradec © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via flickr.com.

Serra’s art has been displayed at some of the world’s top museums, including New York’s MOMA, the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, and Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum. He received France’s Légion d’honneur, the J Paul Getty Medal, the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale, the Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award, and he was made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Some of his artworks around the world include:

Slat, 1984 in the Paris La Défense area.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, Slat, 1984 in Paris — Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via 92.fr.

Schunnemunk Fork, 1991, at the Storm King Art Center in New Windsor, New York.

Richard Serra steel sculpture Schunnemunk Fork, 1991 — Photo by Bryan Derballa © Richard Serra / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via nytimes.com.

Torqued Ellipses, 1996, Dia Beacon, New York.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, Torqued Ellipses, 1996 in indoor museum setting — Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via diaart.org.

Snake, 1997, Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, Snake, 1997, in light filled, spacious musuem setting — Photo © 2012 Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via guggenheim.org.

Sidewinder, 2000, Bridgehampton, New York.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, Sidewinder, 2000 in private outdoor setting — Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via artnews.com.

Te Tuhirangi Contour, 2001, Gibbs Farm, New Zealand.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, Te Tuhirangi Contour, 2001, in a grassy outdoors landscape in Gibbs Farm, New Zealand — Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via ashtonmitchell.com.

Vertical Torus, 2003, Fundación Banco Santander in Madrid, Spain.

Richard Serra outdoor steel sculpture, Vertical Torus, 2003 — Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via fundacionbancosantander.com.

Wake, 2004, Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, Washington.

Richard Serra outdoor steel sculpture installation, Wake, 2004, in Seattle, Washington — Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via samblog.seattleartmuseum.org.

The Matter of Time, 2005, The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain.

Richard Serra steel sculpture exhibit, The Matter of Time, 2005, at The Guggenheim Bilbao — Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via fxreflects.blogspot.com.

Band, 2006, LACMA, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, Band, 2006 at LACMA — Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via johnseed.com.

7, 2011, Museum of Islamic Art Park in Doha, Qatar.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, 7, 2011 at the Museum of Islamic Art Park in Doha, Qatar — Photo from Qatar Museums Authority © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via forbes.com.

Inside Out, 2013, The Gagosian Gallery in New York.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, Inside Out, 2013 at The Gagosian Gallery in New York — Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via inherentbummer.com.

East-West/West-East, 2014 in the Dukhan Desert Brouq Nature Reserve in Qatar (a site which can only can be found via GPS coordinates, there are no streets, roads or other landmarks to guide one to the place). According to The Guardian, Serra said this piece was the most fulfilling thing he had ever done (.- theguardian.com).

Richard Serra steel sculpture, East-West/West-East, 2014 in the Dukhan Desert Brouq Nature Reserve in Qatar — Photo by Nelson Garrido © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via ignant.com.

Transmitter, 2020, Gagosian Le Bourget, in Paris.

Richard Serra steel sculpture, Transmitter, 2020, at the Gagosian Le Bourget in Paris — Photo © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via artpress.com.

Richard Serra passed away on March 26th, 2024, at the age of 85, leaving a legacy of monumental avant-garde art pieces behind, to inspire and engage, well into the future.

Richard Serra steel sculptor, black and white portrait — Photo via nymag.com.

To see Richard Serra’s artworks in person, check out this LAist guide to Richard Serra’s work in Southern California.

Photos courtesy of © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York, nytimes.com, The Museum of Modern Art, guggenheim.org, gagosian.com, washingtonpost.com, Qatar Museums Authority, wsj.com, forbes.com, nymag.com, diaart.org, voorlinden.nl, parisladefense.com, samblog.seattleartmuseum.org, wnyc.org, Galleria La Salita Rome, fundacionbancosantander.com, wikipedia.org, artnews.com, David Zwirner Gallery, stltoday.com, 92.fr, flickr.com, Nelson Garrido, ignant.com, George Etheredge, Calla Kessler, Victor Llorente, Bryan Derballa, Yann Caradec, Peter Moore, Aldo Durazzi, greg.org, artforum.com, artpress.com, magazine.art21.org, fxreflects.blogspot.com, biblio.co.uk, imagejournal.org, thecarolinareal.com, johnseed.com, nrw-skulptur.net, ashtonmitchell.com, and inherentbummer.com.

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