Richard Serra

Richard Serra By Sue Hatcher

Richard Serra is considered by many to be the most important sculptor of the post war period. Richard has a fascination with the possibility of curves. He has a huge mathematical imagination.

He became interested in metal design in his youth while working with his father at the steel mills and shipyards on the west coast. One day his father took him to watch a ship launching. It was a powerful moment for him it still shows up in his dream. It started him thinking in terms of size and space, and what that means. He uses steel to organize space. Richard took sculpture off the pedestal and made you think of sculpture more in terms of time and space. It changed the way we think of sculpture forever. His pieces are massive, he wants you to not only see them but to experience them by walking around and through them. The idea of dealing with space has been central to his entire career. The rhythm of the body through space. He considers space to be the material as he attempts to use sculptural form to make space. Space is the subject – steel is the vehicle. He uses the steel to organize space, steel holds the space. Richard creates slowly and on an enormous scale his work resembles architecture. He creates by shaping and stretching steel like rubber. When you see one of his works it is hard to articulate with words how you view it because you are having a sensory experience and language is a transcription not the event you are experiencing.

Richard took art at Berkley, but he felt as though he was not learning anything. So, he started playing football, till he broke his back. He ended up going to California and a new direction in the English department. He was also reintroduced to art. This time he was taken under the wings of Rico Labrum and Howard Warshaw who were experienced draughtmen who were working on a mural in the library in downtown Santa Barbra.

Dedicated vision and commitment that will make him an artist whose work will last long after he is gone.

When I started this project, I had no appreciation for this kind of art sculpture. But as I read and listened to Richard talk about, and describe how and why he does his work I found as I started to understand the meaning I starting to like this kind of art, and to think more about what art means to me and what art means in general I have a broader outlook on art I will think more kindly on art I don’t understand right away.

Enright, Robert. “The WEIGHT of HISTORY: Richard Serra’s Sculpture and Drawings.” Border Crossings, vol. 36, no. 4, Dec. 2017, pp. 26–43. EBSCOhost, cmsmir.clevelandstatecc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aft&AN=127167579&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

These are a few of his pieces.