Richard Serra

Hreppholar VI

1991, etching, ed. 36, 88,3 x 110 cm (sold)

Rue Ligner

1989, Lithograph, Ed. 22, 180 x 133 cm (sold)

Min

1990, Lithograph, Ed. 22, 133 x 205 cm

Serra_Min — Min,
1990, Lithograph, Ed. 22, 133 x 205 cm

Finkl Forge II

1996, etching on lanaquarelle paper, Ed. 33, 120,3 x 120,3 cm (sold)

Biography

Born 1939 in San Francisco/USA
1957-61 studied fine arts in Berkeley and Santa Barbara
1961-64 Studies with Josef Albers at the University of California and at Yale University, New Haven
1964 Trip to Italy. There he encountered the currents of Arte povera and Minimal Art.
1966 Moves to New York
From 1968 he made monumental sculptures of steel and iron
1970 Guggenheim Fellowship. Solo exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum
1972, 1982, 1987 Participation in documenta 5, 7, 8, Kassel
1975 "Sculpture Award" of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
1976-77 Installation of the object "Terminal" in Bochum
1981 Goslar Kaiserring
1991 Wilhelm Lehmbruck Prize of the City of Duisburg
1986 Solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
2001 First solo exhibition at the Galerie Georg Nothelfer
2002 Order "Pour le Mérite
2005 Installation "The Matter of Time" for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The work is one of the largest sculptural commissions ever developed for a concrete space in the history of modernism.
2007 Retrospective Museum of Modern Art in New York
2012 Member of the American Philosophical Society
2014 Alexej-von-Jawlensky Prize, Wiesbaden
Passed away 2024 in New York/USA

Richard Serra is one of the most important American sculptors of the 20th and 21st centuries. In a reduced, abstract formal language, Richard Serra addresses the relationships between object and space, volume and weight. In particular, the artist uses rusting steel; his sculptures are characterised by monumentality and approach the art form of the environment. In this way, the viewer becomes an active part of the works. In addition to sculpture, the artist also experimented with film and video in the 1960s and 1970s. Last but not least, he created an outstanding graphic oeuvre: drawings and prints have accompanied his sculptural work since the early 1970s at the latest. The expansive works on paper and canvas are sometimes of overwhelming size and unfold a similar force as his sculptures. They are not sketches but autonomous and independent works. However, references to his sculptures cannot be overlooked. While these define the architectural space, the circles, squares and planes sit massively in the drawing ground and seem to explode it. Serra uses only the colour black to avoid any association with colour meanings.

Richard Serra

Biography

Exhibitions