Richard Serra

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Serra, Richard (1939– ). American sculptor, born in San Francisco. He studied at the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara, graduating in 1961, and then at Yale University, where he was taught by Josef Albers. In 1965–6 he lived in Paris and Florence with his first wife Nancy Graves, then settled in New York. His early work was varied; the materials he used included wooden logs, molten lead splashed along the base of a wall, and vulcanized rubber sheets (arranged so that the weight of the material was allowed to determine the shape of the piece). Much of this work has been described as Process art. In about 1970 the direction of his art changed as he began to use industrial materials, often on a gigantic scale in works intended for specific sites. His sculptures have often aroused controversy, most notably Tilted Arc (1981), a huge slab of curved, tilted steel—120 ft (36 metres) long and 12 ft (3.6 metres) high—commissioned by the General Services Administration for Federal Plaza, New York. It was hated by many people who worked in the area not only on aesthetic grounds (it was described as a ‘hideous hulk of rusty scrap metal') but also because it interfered with the social activities of the plaza. After highly-publicized legal proceedings it was removed in 1989. Serra refused to consider a proposed relocation to one side of the plaza, as it had been conceived for one particular position: ‘Every site has an ideology … what I try to do is expose that ideology.’ He claims that ‘it's not the business of art to deal with human needs'.

Richard Serra 1939–, American sculptor, b. San Francisco; grad. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara (B.A., 1961), Yale (B.F.A., M.F.A., 1974). Many of his early works (1960s) are cast in rubber or lead. Later, using metals, concrete, fiberglass, and other materials, he created large-scale abstract sculptures that were usually intended for specific outdoor sites. His Tilted Arc (1981) achieved notoriety when nearby office workers demanded its removal from a site in lower Manhattan. Perceived as menacing, the elegant 120-ft (37-m) curving sheet of rusting steel was dismantled in 1989. In the ensuing years Serra's huge, curved, torqued, space-enclosing, and space-defining steel sculptures, best experienced not by simply looking at them, but by wandering through and around them, have become extremely popular and are widely thought to be among the most significant abstract sculptures of the late 20th and early 21st cent. His pieces are included in many major museum collections; an eight-part, more than 430-ft-long (131-m) assemblage of his massive, rust-patinated steel sculpture was permanently installed (2005) at the Guggenheim Museum's Bilbao branch.

Bibliography: See Richard Serra: Writings/Interviews (1994); C. Weyergraf-Serra and M. Buskirk, ed., The Destruction of Tilted Arc: Documents (1991); K. McShine et al., Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years (2007); studies by R. Krauss (1986) and H. Foster, ed. (2000).

Serra, Richard (b San Francisco, 2 Nov. 1939). American sculptor. His early work was varied; the materials he used included wooden logs, molten lead splashed along the base of a wall, and vulcanized rubber sheets (arranged so that the weight of the material was allowed to determine the shape of the piece). In about 1970 the direction of his art changed as he began to use industrial materials, often on a gigantic scale in works intended for specific sites. His sculptures have often aroused controversy, most notably Tilted Arc (1981), a huge slab of curved, tilted steel commissioned by the General Services Administration for Federal Plaza, New York. It was hated by many people who worked in the area not only on aesthetic grounds (it was described as a ‘hideous hulk of rusty scrap metal’) but also because it interfered with the social activities of the plaza. After highly publicized legal proceedings it was destroyed in 1989. Serra refused to have it relocated, as it was intended for this particular site: ‘Every site has an ideology…what I try to do is expose that ideology.’ He claims that ‘it's not the business of art to deal with human needs’. His first wife was the sculptor Nancy Graves (1940–95).