De Maria, Fontana, Judd, Manzoni, Merz, Picasso, Rauschenberg, Serra, Warhol @ Gagosian, Paris

De Maria, Fontana, Judd, Manzoni, Merz, Picasso, Rauschenberg, Serra, Warhol

Gagosian, Paris

2 avril - 31 mai 2025

Please scroll down for the English version

Tout acte de destruction est aussi un acte de création. Détruire, c’est ouvrir un espace, dégager un chemin pour quelque chose de nouveau.

—Gilles Deleuze, Différence et répétition, 1968

Cette exposition collective présente une conversation entre des artistes d’après-guerre ayant questionné les conventions de la forme, du matériau et de la perception, et souligne l’évolution de leurs pratiques. L’installation rassemble des œuvres majeures de Walter De Maria, Lucio Fontana, Donald Judd, Piero Manzoni, Mario Merz, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra et Andy Warhol.

Ces œuvres révèlent la façon dont la répétition dans l’art peut redéfinir les possibilités perceptuelles et formelles, en examinant la manière dont les artistes ont utilisé la sérialité, la variation et l’accumulation pour déstabiliser les schémas conventionnels de la vue et de la pensée. La déclaration de Picasso, « Dans mon cas, une image est la somme de destructions », résonne avec la pensée de Deleuze. Parallèlement aux recherches du philosophe sur la différenciation et l’itération, Serra affirme que « la répétition est le rituel de l’obsession ».

Le passage de Picasso à la sculpture, les structures modulaires et sérielles de Judd, l’insistance de Serra sur le processus de création et son exploration incessante de la matérialité, ainsi que les œuvres et sculptures à caractère durable de De Maria démontrent que la répétition n’est jamais statique, mais qu’elle est au contraire une force de renouvellement. Les œuvres de Fontana, Concetto spaziale, sont percées, ouvrant le plan de l’image à un espace infini, tandis que la série Achrome de Manzoni renonce à la couleur, à la représentation et à l’allusion pour mettre l’accent sur la présence matérielle. Dans leur art, Rauschenberg et Merz reconfigurent radicalement les objets quotidiens, tandis que la multiplication des images de Warhol déplace leurs significations reçues en faveur de nouvelles interprétations. Ensemble, ces oeuvres offrent une réflexion opportune sur la nature cyclique de l’innovation artistique et sur les relations changeantes entre le passé et le présent.

_____

Every act of destruction is also an act of creation. To destroy is to open up a space, to clear a path for something new.

—Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition, 1968

This group exhibition presents a conversation between postwar artists who challenged the conventions of form, material, and perception, highlighting the evolution of their practices. On view through May 31, the installation gathers defining works by Walter De Maria, Lucio Fontana, Donald Judd, Piero Manzoni, Mario Merz, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra, and Andy Warhol.

These works reveal how repetition in art can redefine perceptual and formal possibilities, examining how artists have employed seriality, variation, and accumulation to destabilize conventional patterns of sight and thought. Picasso’s declaration “In my case, a picture is a sum of destructions” resonates with the thinking of Gilles Deleuze. Parallelling the philosopher’s inquiries into differentiation and iteration is Serra’s credo that “Repetition is the ritual of obsession.”

Picasso’s turn to sculpture, Judd’s modular and serial structures, Serra’s insistence on process and his relentless exploration of materiality, and De Maria’s durational works and sculptures demonstrate that repetition is never static, but rather a force of renewal. Fontana’s Concetto spaziale works are pierced, opening the picture plane up to infinite space, while Manzoni’s Achrome series negates color, representation, and allusion to emphasize material presence. Rauschenberg and Merz radically reconfigure everyday objects in their art, whereas Warhol’s multiplication of images displaces their received meanings in favor of new interpretations. Together they offer a timely reflection on the cyclical nature of artistic innovation and the shifting relationships between past and present.

GAGOSIAN, PARIS

4 rue de Ponthieu, 75008 Paris

gagosian.com

Richard Serra: The Final Works @ Cristea Roberts Gallery, London

Richard Serra

The Final Works

Cristea Roberts Gallery, London

Until 26 April 2025

RICHARD SERRA

Casablanca #3, 2022

Hand-applied oil stick, etching ink and silica 

on Igarashi 430gsm handmade paper

Paper and Image: 167.9 x 152.9 cm - 66 1/8 x 60 1/4 inches. 

Edition of 27

© Richard Serra. Courtesy of Cristea Roberts Gallery, London

Marking the first anniversary of Richard Serra’s death at the age of 85, Cristea Roberts Gallery presents the final works made by the artist.

The first complete showing of these works outside the US focuses on two series of prints made using black oil stick. Serra, one of the most significant artists of his generation, was known for monumental steel sculptures. However, his explorations of form, mass and gravity informed every aspect of his art, including his works on paper.

Casablanca 1-6, 2022 and Hitchcock I-III, 2024 mark the culmination of over fifty years of printmaking. Although described as prints, none of these works passed through a press and the methods used are unlike those of traditional printmaking; Serra’s chosen media undermines our understanding of what constitutes an editioned work.

Each work was made using oil stick, a combination of pigment, linseed oil, and melted wax. The mixture was moulded into large cylindrical sticks, then pressed down into a meat grinder and blended in an industrial dough mixer with silica.

The mixture was applied in layers, by a gloved hand, directly onto handmade paper, pushing and rubbing in a downward direction. Each layer required weeks of drying time before an additional coat could be applied. As a result, each impression varies in its construction.

For each work, layer upon layer of black oil stick was built up so that an intensely textured and rich three-dimensional surface emerges, evoking a large void. This imposing effect of black absorbing and reflecting light, dominates Serra’s prints. When making works on paper Serra remained committed to using a single palette of black to investigate weight, stability, and density. 

Richard Serra commented “Black is a property, not a quality. In terms of weight, black is heavier, creates a larger volume, holds itself in a more compressed field. It is comparable to forging.”

The mass of black in each work, which almost fills the entire sheets in Casablanca and Hitchcock, is relieved by thin areas of paper that appear to rise or emerge from curved edges and corners. Serra examines tension and gravity through this unequal balance of heavy mass and handmade Japanese paper. The paper support almost appears precarious; each impression of Casablanca, measuring over 150cm in width, weighs nearly 10 kilograms.

Richard Serra was interested in how an artwork not only exists in space but reorientates it. His sculptures created environments that had to be walked through or around to be fully experienced. Serra’s printmaking extends these investigations, interrogating the physical relationship of mass and the flat surface, and the viewers relationship to it.

The exhibition also features examples of earlier uses of black oil stick and etchings by the artist dating from 2004, and a display of the tools used to create these groundbreaking works.

Richard Serra: The Final Works demonstrates how the artist’s radical techniques and exceptional approach to making editions, remains singular in the history of printmaking.

Since presenting the first exhibition in the UK devoted to Serra’s prints in 2013, Cristea Roberts Gallery has continued to exclusively exhibit the artist’s editions in Europe. The works on show were developed by Richard Serra with Gemini G.E.L., an artists’ workshop and publisher in Los Angeles, where Serra made all his editions, a collaboration that lasted for over fifty years.

RICHARD SERRA - BRIOGRAPHY

Richard Serra (1938 - 2024) was born in San Francisco, USA. He lived and worked in New York, and the North Fork of Long Island, and Nova Scotia. From 1957 to 1961 Serra studied at the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara, and from 1961 to 1964 at Yale University, Connecticut, where he worked with Josef Albers on Albers seminal book, Interaction of Color (New Haven, 1963). His first solo exhibition was held at Galleria La Salita, Rome, in 1966 and the Pasadena Art Museum staged his first solo museum exhibition in 1970.

Serra’s large-scale, site-specific sculptures, featuring monumental arcs, spirals, and ellipses can be found all over the world. Selected solo exhibitions and retrospectives include Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel (2017); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2017); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2014); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2011); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2011); Menil Collection, Houston (2011); Monumenta, Grand Palais, Paris (2008); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2008); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006); San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art (2006); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2005); Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples (2004); Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis (2003). His works are housed in major collections all over the world.

 

Richard Serra participated in international exhibitions including Documenta, Kassel (1972, 1977, 1982, and 1987); the Venice Biennale (1980, 1984, 2001, and 2013); and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual and Biennial exhibitions (1968, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1995, and 2006).

Richard Serra was the recipient of many notable prizes and awards. In 2015, he was awarded Les Insignes de Chevalier de l’Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur, France, and in 2018 he received the J. Paul Getty Medal, which honors extraordinary contributions to the practice, understanding, and support of the arts. Prior to this he was also awarded Orden de las Artes y las Letras de España, Spain in 2008 and Orden pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste, Federal Republic of Germany in 2002.

Richard Serra passed away aged 85 on 26 March 2024 in New York, USA.

CRISTEA ROBERTS GALLERY, LONDON 

43 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JG 

www.cristearoberts.com 

Related Posts:

In English

Richard Serra: Every Which Way, David Zwirner, New York, November 7 – December 14, 2024

Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, April 13 – August 28, 2011

Richard Serra: Torqued Ellipses, Dia Center for the Arts, New York, September 25, 1997 - June 14, 1998

En Français

Richard Serra : Casablanca, Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, 14 mars - 30 avril 2024

Richard Serra : Clara Clara, 1983 , Musée du Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, 14 avril – 3 novembre 2008

Richard Serra: The Final Works

Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, 13 March - 26 April 2025

Richard Serra @ David Zwirner, NYC - "Every Which Way" Exhibition + Biography

Richard Serra: Every Which Way 

David Zwirner, New York

November 7 – December 14, 2024

David Zwirner presents Every Which Way, a major installation from 2015 by RICHARD SERRA (1938–2024), at the gallery’s 537 West 20th Street space in New York.

The work comprises sixteen vertical steel panels, each measuring six feet wide and twelve inches thick. These stand at varying heights of either seven, nine, or eleven feet tall and are arranged in a staggered grid formation that spans the exhibition space.

As Richard Serra described: “In Every Which Way you confront the frontality of each cluster of plates first, and then turn depending on how much attention you pay. You’re led to make a horizontal shift instead of just walking diagonally or straight ahead. Turning around, walking backward, sliding across—that happens a lot in [my work from this period]. Also, due to its verticality—five of the sixteen slabs are eleven feet high—Every Which Way has more of an architectural reference than prior pieces.… It’s always there, not here. Even when you’re right up against it, it always evades you.… Like [being in the midst of a] city, Every Which Way forces you to make countersteps, twists, and turns continuously.” --Richard Serra, “Passages and Intervals,” in Richard Serra and Hal Foster: Conversations about Sculpture, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018, 144.

Richard Serra was born in San Francisco and lived and worked in New York, the North Fork of Long Island, and Nova Scotia. His first significant solo exhibition was held at the Leo Castelli Warehouse, New York, in 1969. His first solo museum exhibition took place at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1970. Serra subsequently participated in numerous international exhibitions, including Documenta (1972, 1977, 1982, and 1987) in Kassel, Germany; the 1980, 1984, 2001, and 2013 editions of the Venice Biennale; and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual and Biennial exhibitions of 1968, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1995, and 2006.

Solo exhibitions of Richard Serra’s work have been held at numerous public institutions worldwide, including, among others, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (1980); Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris (1984); Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany (1985); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1986); Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster, Germany (1987); Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (1987); Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands (1988); Kunsthaus Zürich (1990); CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux (1990); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1992); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (1992); Dia Center for the Arts, New York (1997); Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro (1997–1998); Trajan’s Market, Rome (2000); Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis (2003); and Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples (2004).

In 2005, The Matter of Time, a series of eight large-scale works by Serra from 1994 to 2005, was installed permanently at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and in 2007, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, presented the retrospective Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years. Promenade, a major site-specific installation, was shown at the Grand Palais, Paris, for Monumenta 2008. In 2011, the artist’s large-scale, site-specific sculpture 7 was permanently installed opposite the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. In 2014, the Qatar Museum Authority presented a two-venue retrospective survey of Serra’s work at the QMA Gallery and the Al Riwaq exhibition space, Doha, and East-West/West-East (2014) was permanently installed in the Brouq Nature Reserve in the Zekreet Desert, Qatar. In June 2020, a new major sculpture by Richard Serra was installed on the West Quad of Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio. In 2022, Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland, opened a new building designed by Thomas Phifer in collaboration with the artist to house Four Rounds: Equal Weight, Unequal Measure, the monumental sculpture that Richard Serra debuted at David Zwirner in 2017.

Museum exhibitions that have focused on the artist’s drawings include Richard Serra: Tekeningen/Drawings 1971–1977, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1977); Richard Serra: Zeichnungen 1971–1977, Kunsthalle Tübingen, West Germany (1978); Richard Serra: Drawings, Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk, Denmark (1986); Richard Serra: Tekeningen/Drawings, Bonnefantemuseum, Maastricht, the Netherlands (1990); Richard Serra: Drawings, Serpentine Gallery, London (1992); Richard Serra: Drawings and Prints, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (1994); Richard Serra: Rio Rounds, Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro (1997–1998); and Richard Serra: Drawings: Work Comes Out of Work, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2008). A major traveling retrospective dedicated to the artist’s drawings was presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and The Menil Collection, Houston (which was the organizing venue), in 2011–2012. The Courtauld Gallery, London, presented Richard Serra: Drawings for The Courtauld in 2013, and Richard Serra: desenhos na casa da Gávea was on view at Instituto Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro, in 2014. Richard Serra: Drawings 2015–2017, a significant overview of the artist’s recent works on paper, was on view at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 2017. In 2022, the Guggenheim Bilbao presented Serra/Seurat. Drawings, an exhibition pairing a selection of Richard Serra’s recent drawings alongside those by Georges Seurat.

Richard Serra was the recipient of many notable prizes and awards, including a J. Paul Getty Medal (2018) awarded in honor of extraordinary contributions to the practice, understanding, and support of the arts; the Chevalier de l’Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur, Republic of France (2015); Orden de las Artes y las Letras de España, Spain (2008); Orden pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste, Federal Republic of Germany (2002); Leone d’Oro for lifetime achievement, Venice Biennale (2001); Praemium Imperiale, Japan Art Association (1994); Carnegie Prize (1985); a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1974); and a Fulbright Grant (1965).

In 2013 in New York, David Zwirner presented Richard Serra: Early Work, a critically acclaimed exhibition that brought together significant works from 1966 to 1971. The accompanying catalogue extensively covers this period of the artist’s career with a compendium of archival texts and photographs and an essay by Hal Foster. In 2014, the gallery presented an exhibition of new drawings, Richard Serra: Vertical and Horizontal Reversals; a catalogue accompanied the exhibition and included an essay by Gordon Hughes. Richard Serra: Equal, an installation in forged weatherproof steel, was presented at David Zwirner, New York, in 2015. That work is now in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2016, David Zwirner Books/Steidl published Richard Serra: Forged Steel, which surveys the artist’s work in forged steel since 1977 and features scholarship by Richard Shiff and texts by the artist. In 2017, the gallery presented an exhibition of new sculpture and drawings by the artist at its New York location. In 2018, David Zwirner presented a series of new drawings by Serra in Hong Kong. In 2022, a forged steel work titled 2022 was presented at David Zwirner, New York, alongside a series of drawings by the artist; these two presentations were accompanied by the publication Richard Serra: 2022. In 2024, the gallery presented Six Large Drawings at David Zwirner’s London location. 

Work by Richard Serra is held in important public and private collections worldwide.

DAVID ZWIRNER GALLERY

537 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011

www.davidzwirner.com

Exposition Richard Serra @ Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris - "Casablanca" - Suite de six oeuvres graphiques

Richard Serra : Casablanca

Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris

14 mars - 30 avril 2024

RICHARD SERRA

Casablanca #1, 2022

Oilstick, encre et silice, 26 exemplaires. 152,4 × 167,6 cm

© Richard Serra. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

Depuis les années 80, la Galerie Lelong présente régulièrement à Paris l’œuvre gravé de Richard Serra, qui a constitué, d’années en années, un ensemble remarquable.

"Casablanca" (2022) est une suite de six œuvres graphiques réalisées en étroite collaboration avec le maître imprimeur Xavier Fumat à l’atelier Gemini G.E.L. de Los Angeles. Ces estampes sont spectaculaires par leur dimension et leur qualité plastique que l’on ne peut apprécier qu’en les voyant physiquement. L’artiste et l’atelier ont poussé à leur extrême limite ce que peut supporter une grande feuille épaisse presque entièrement recouverte de matière noire. Jouant sur papier avec l’idée de pesanteur et d’équilibre, ces gravures monumentales sont présentées dans un encadrement voulu par l’artiste, sans verre ni plexiglas ; les cinq premières mesurent 153 x 168 cm et la sixième 183 x 213 cm.

Plus que leur dimension, c’est leur matière exceptionnelle qui impressionne et même fascine. Très texturées, réalisées avec un mélange de bâton d’encre à l'huile appliqué à la main, d'encre pour gravure et de silice, elles sont, de la part d’un sculpteur, une autre face de l’expérience de l’"outrenoir" menée par le peintre Pierre Soulages.

Richard Serra a commencé à travailler à ce projet au début de l’année 2020, juste avant le premier confinement provoqué par la pandémie, qui a perturbé gravement l’activité de l’atelier. Le travail étant effectué par intermittence, les essais ont été expédiés à l’artiste à New York jusqu'à ce que le bon à tirer de chaque estampe soit signé. Obtenir ensuite les quantités d’encre et de papier nécessaires au projet, fut un autre défi. Ainsi, du début à la fin, cette entreprise aura pris près de 3 ans. La voici montrée à Paris pour la première fois.

Richard Serra (né en 1939 à San Francisco) est l'un des sculpteurs les plus importants du XXIe siècle. Il a exposé dans de grands musées et créé des œuvres in situ pour des lieux publics et privés à travers le monde. Son travail a fait l’objet de deux rétrospectives au MoMA, en 1986 et 2007. D’autres expositions récentes majeures ont eu lieu au Guggenheim de Bilbao (1999), au Musée d'art de Saint-Louis, Missouri (2003, 2014) au Musée archéologique national, Naples (2004). Ses dessins ont été exposés au Kunsthaus Bregenz (2008) puis au Metropolitan Museum of Art, et au San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2011-12). On se souvient du spectaculaire "Promenade", dans le cadre de Monumenta au Grand Palais, Paris (2008) ; son œuvre "East-West/West-East" est installée en 2014 de manière pérenne dans le désert, à 70 km de Doha au Qatar.

Richard Serra a participé quatre fois à Documenta (1972, 1977, 1982 et 1987), et à la Biennale de Venise (1980, 1984, 2001, 2013). L’artiste vit et travaille à New York.

Galerie Lelong & Co.

13 rue de Téhéran, 75008 Paris

www.galerie-lelong.com

Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York + San Francisco Museum of Modern art + The Menil Collection, Houston

Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

April 13 – August 28, 2011

The first retrospective of the drawings of American contemporary artist RICHARD SERRA is on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective traces the crucial role that drawing has played in Serra's work for more than 40 years. Although Richard Serra is well known for his large-scale and site-specific sculptures, his work has also changed the practice of drawing. This major exhibition shows how Serra's work has expanded the definition of drawing through innovative techniques, unusual media, monumental scale, and carefully conceived relationships to surrounding spaces. Featured are 60 works from the 1970s to the present, including many loans from important European and American collections, as well as large-scale works completed specifically for this presentation.

Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective follows the artist's investigation of drawing as an activity both independent from and linked to his sculptural practice. The exhibition begins with his drawings from the early 1970s, when he drew primarily on paper with ink, charcoal, lithographic crayon, and black paintstick—a crayon comprised of a mixture of pigment, oil, and wax. These works explore formal and perceptual relationships between his sculpture and the viewer. Over time, his drawings increased in scale and evolved into autonomous works of art that challenged the notion of drawing as preparatory work.

In the mid-1970s, Richard Serra made the first of his monumentally scaled Installation Drawings, some of which hang from floor to ceiling and have a width of 10 to 20 feet. To make works such as Pacific Judson Murphy (1978), the artist attached Belgian linen directly to the wall and covered the entire surface with black paintstick, using repetitive and vigorous physical gestures. The Installation Drawings marked a radical shift, altering conceptions of what a drawing is and how it can interact with architecture. Serra's drawings of this period control the space of entire rooms and disrupt perceptions of spatial relationships.

Richard Serra has written of these drawings, "By the nature of their weight, shape, location, flatness, and delineation along their edges, the black canvases enabled me to define spaces within a given architectural enclosure. The weight of the drawing derives not only from the number of layers of paintstick but mainly from the particular shape of the drawing."

In his drawings since the 1980s, Richard Serra has continued to invent new techniques and to explore a variety of surface effects, primarily on paper. In 1989, Richard Serra made a series of diptychs on large, heavy sheets of paintstick-covered paper. Several of the titles of these drawings—such as No Mandatory Patriotism and The United States Government Destroys Art—express the artist's reaction to the removal and disassembly of his sculpture Titled Arc, which was commissioned as a permanent work for New York City's Federal Plaza. The exhibition also includes works from several of his drawing series, such as Deadweight (1991), Weight and Measure (1994), Rounds (1996-97), and Out-of-Rounds (1999-2000).

In Serra's recent drawings, such as the Solids series (2007-2008), the accumulation of black paintstick on paper is so dense that nearly the entire surface of the paper is covered in a layer of viscous pigment. To make these drawings, Richard Serra often pours melted paintstick onto the floor and then lays the paper on top of the pigment. The paintstick is transferred to the sheet by pressing a hard marking tool onto the back of the paper. The exhibition swith a new drawing series from 2010 titled Elevational Weight.

Complementing the drawings there is a presentation of the artist's sketchbooks and four films made by the artist in 1968: Hand Catching Lead, Hand Lead Fulcrum, Hands Scraping, and Hands Tied.

RICHARD SERRA (b. 1939, San Francisco, California) studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, graduating with a BA in English literature. Serra then received an MFA from Yale University in 1964 and had one of his first New York exhibitions at Leo Castelli's Warehouse gallery, in 1967. His work has been the subject of major exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1977), The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1986 and 2007), Serpentine Gallery, London (1992), The Drawing Center, New York (1994), Dia: Chelsea, New York (1997), Guggenheim Bilbao (2005), and the Grand Palais, Paris (2008), among other museums.

Richard Serra has received numerous awards and accolades for his artistic achievements. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received honorary doctorates from Yale University and other universities. In 2008 he was named a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Academy and was decorated with the Order of the Arts and Letters of Spain. He received the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture from the Japan Art Association in 1994 and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 2010.

Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective is organized Bernice Rose, Chief Curator, Menil Drawing Institute and Study Center; Michelle White, Associate Curator, The Menil Collection; and Gary Garrels, Elise S. Haas Senior Curator Painting and Sculpture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The presentation of the exhibition at the Metropolitan is organized by Magdalena Dabrowski, Special Consultant in the Museum's Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art.

The 180-page exhibition catalogue features 160 illustrations and essays by Michelle White, Bernice Rose, Gary Garrels, and Magdalena Dabrowski, as well as contributions by Richard Shiff, the Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art at the University of Texas at Austin; and Lizzie Borden, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and writer. Also included in the catalogue are: an illustrated chronology related to Serra's drawing production; a selected drawing bibliography and exhibition history; and an anthology of selected interviews and writings by the artist, including Serra's notes on drawings. The catalogue is published by The Menil Collection and distributed by Yale University Press.

The exhibition was organized by the Menil Collection, Houston. After its presentation at the Metropolitan, Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective will travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (October 15, 2011 – January 17, 2012) and The Menil Collection, Houston (March 2 – June 10, 2012).

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

1000 Fifth Avenue. New York City

www.metmuseum.org

Gagosian Gallery NYC Madison Summer Shows 2010

SUMMER SHOWS

Gagosian Gallery, New York, Madison Avenue

July 8 - September 3, 2010

Three exhibitions on three floors at Gagosian Gallery, New York, Madison Avenue this summer:

The 6th Floor group show features Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra and Christopher Wool

The 5th Floor show features a selection of works by German artist Anselm Reyle

The 4th Floor group show features Mike Kelley, Florian Maier-Aichen and Anselm Reyle.

GAGOSIAN GALLERY
980 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10075

Summer Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-6pm

Richard Serra : Clara Clara, 1983 au Jardin des Tuileries, Paris

Richard Serra : Clara Clara, 1983 

Musée du Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris

14 avril – 3 novembre 2008 

Richard Serra 

Clara Clara, 1983

Acier corten

Collection FMAC, Ville de Paris

© Dirk Reinartz

Le Louvre accueille dans le jardin des Tuileries, Clara Clara, oeuvre célèbre de Richard Serra, à l'occasion de Monumenta 2008 : Richard Serra / Promenade. La sculpture est installée pour six mois à l'entrée du jardin des Tuileries, au fer à cheval. Elle retrouve aujourd'hui l'emplacement pour lequel elle a été conçue en 1983, à la faveur de la rétrospective consacrée à l'artiste par le Centre Pompidou. 

Richard Serra est né à San Francisco en 1939. Après des études de littérature anglaise, il étudie les beaux-arts à l’université de Yale. Pour financer ses études, il travaille dans une aciérie, ce qui aura une grande influence sur ses travaux futurs. Il passe ensuite deux années à Paris et en Italie avant de s'installer à New York en 1966. En 1967 et 1968, l'artiste développe une liste de verbes tels que “éparpiller”, “enrouler”, “appuyer”, “couper” et “plier” pour décrire la plupart des processus qu'il mettra en œuvre tout le long de sa carrière. 

L’œuvre de Richard Serra marque la fin de la représentation en sculpture et le début de l’abstraction. La matière n’est plus prétexte à la forme, mais est valorisée pour elle-même. C’est une des raisons pour lesquelles Richard Serra choisit l’usine comme lieu de fabrication de ses œuvres et renouvelle ainsi l’idée d’un art sculptural dans lequel les matériaux prennent une place prépondérante. Ainsi ses immenses structures de métal s’inscrivent sur des sites tels que la cour extérieure du MoMA à New York.

  

Crée en 1983 pour le jardin des Tuileries la sculpture monumentale fut installée un temps au parc de Choisy, à Paris, puis conservée dans une réserve du Fonds municipal d’art contemporain. De retour, à l’occasion de Monumenta, dans les jardins de Le Nôtre l'oeuvre retrouve sa perspective, sa cohérence et de fait tout son sens.

Richard Serra interroge un espace, en modifie la perception. Il offre au spectateur l'opportunité de vivre l'oeuvre, de l'appréhender tant visuellement que physiquement. L’interaction du public avec l’oeuvre se manifeste par sa mobilité autour et à l'intérieur de la sculpture. 

Clara Clara, haute de 3,40 mètres et longue de 36 mètres, est une oeuvre véritablement monumentale. Les deux grandes courbes d'acier qui la composent sont légèrement inclinées et matérialisent l'axe royal. Les jeux d'équilibre entre les plaques, répondant aux courbes des rampes de Le Nôtre et s'inscrivant dans la perspective du palais du Louvre et de l'Arc de Triomphe, suscitent toujours une forte émotion. Clara Clara laissera de nouveau un souvenir marquant aux promeneurs du jardin des Tuileries.

« Ce que je veux, c'est que mon œuvre ne soit pas perçue uniquement comme une production esthétique de plus. Si elle devient un lieu de référence pour les gens de toutes opinions et si c'est ma sculpture qui constitue l'expérience leur permettant de se rencontrer, génial. Je voudrais que cette installation soit un espace public, ouvert, où tout le monde peut venir, surtout les jeunes.» Richard Serra 

L'installation est organisée en partenariat avec Monumenta 2008, avec le soutien de The Broad Art Foundation et grâce à la participation de la Gagosian Gallery.

« Faces à Faces »

Richard Serra : films

En conversation avec Yve-Alain Bois, Institute For Advanced Studies, Princeton

Vendredi 9 mai, à l’auditorium du Louvre à 20h

En partenariat avec Monumenta 2008

Richard Serra 

Hand catching lead, 1968, film noir et blanc

© Richard Serra

Dans une série de films courts en plan fixe datés de 1968-1969, Richard Serra explore les éléments constitutifs de sa pratique de sculpteur : l’action de ses mains en rapport concret avec le matériau, les notions de poids et de résistance, les illusions optiques générées par l’échelle, le cadre, le point de vue. Ce dialogue avec l’image en mouvement, établi dans la première phase de son oeuvre, inaugure un travail sur la monumentalité qui implique intimement le corps actif et perceptif du spectateur.

Entrée libre dans la mesure des places disponibles.

Richard Serra, Hands scraping (1968), Film noir et blanc, silencieux, 3’40

Richard Serra, Hand catching Lead (1968), Film noir et blanc, silencieux, 3’

Richard Serra, Frame (1968), Film 16 mm noir et blanc, sonore, 20’

Richard Serra, Hands tied (1968), Film 16 mm noir et blanc, silencieux, 6’

Richard Serra, Hand Lead Fulcrum (1969), Film 16 mm noir et blanc, silencieux, 2’ 

MUSÉE DU LOUVRE - JARDIN DES TUILLERIES

www.louvre.fr

Richard Serra at Dia Center for the Arts, New York

Richard Serra: "Torqued Ellipses"
Dia Center for the Arts, New York
September 25, 1997 - June 14, 1998

Dia Center for the Arts presents an exhibition of new sculpture by the American artist RICHARD SERRA. Titled "Torqued Ellipses," this exhibition will mark the debut of Dia's second exhibition building for temporary exhibitions, at 545 West 22nd Street, located directly across the street from its current facility at 548 West 22nd Street, New York City.

The Torqued Ellipses mark a new departure in Richard Serra's oeuvre, one which involves bending steel in a totally unprecedented manner. Four years ago, Serra conceived this group of approximately twenty sculptures in the form of lead models. A CATIA computer program was developed from the models to enable a rolling machine to torque the steel plates. After a protracted search, Serra finally located Beth Ship, a shipyard and rolling mill at Sparrow's Point outside Baltimore, which was willing to undertake the project. To date, four sculptures from this series have been realized, three of which will be on view at Dia this fall.

As Mark Taylor writes in his essay for the catalogue that will accompany the exhibition:

The effect of these works is extraordinary. Though made of heavy industrial materials and massive in size, they have the delicacy of finely folded ribbon or even paper twisted to form a Möbius strip that never quite reaches closure. As one moves from outside to inside by passing through the gap in these works, everything shifts. Lines that appear straight on the outside bend and buckle on the inside; arcs that seem to tilt away when viewed from without bend inward to enfold subject in object when experienced from within. As twisted space surrounds or even circulates through the perceptive body, the space and time of the work of art become utterly destabilizing and disorienting.

Born in San Francisco in 1939, RICHARD SERRA has a longstanding engagement with steel. After financing his college degree by working in steel mills, Serra adopted steel as his preferred material in the late sixties: he has continued to use it in different ways, propped, bent, forged, and rolled for over three decades.

Since his first solo show in Rome in 1966, Richard Serra has had numerous exhibitions throughout the world, including a 1986 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In addition, he has created a number of seminal site-specific sculptures in public venues in both North America and Europe. Most recently, as his contribution to the current Sculpture Projects in Münster, Germany, Serra was commissioned to make a permanent installation at one of that city's most renowned historic buildings, the Haus Rüschhaus designed by the Baroque architect J.C. Schlaun. Serra recently installed Snake, a 100-feet-long, 13-feet-high sculpture commissioned by the Guggenheim's new museum in Bilbao. In the fall of 1998, he will open an exhibition of large-scale installations at the Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Dia Center for the Arts
www.diacenter.org