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Goodbye, Richard Serra

Richard Serra’s work made me question structures within spaces, the purpose of sculptures in public spaces, and the role and synergies between an artist versus an architect. There are only a handful of artists who work at that scale - a spatial design that allows one to be immersed within and experience a space, and importantly, also operate at a high level. A few other admirable artists working at that scale that immediately came to mind are artists Anish Kapoor and Do Ho Sun. It was with great sadness that on the 26th of March 2024, it was announced that Richard Serra passed away from pneumonia, which took his life from his home in Orient, New York.

Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipses. Image by Von Chua.

Born in 1938, Richard Serra was born in San Francisco to European immigrants. When I read that Serra’s father, Tony Serra, was a pipe fitter in a naval shipyard, I wondered if he ever went to his father’s workplace because of the similarities I see in his work with ship hulls. Serra first pursued English literature at the University of California, Berkeley and later at UC Santa Barbara where he took art classes. Notably, he also studied painting and art history during his BFA and MFA at Yale University. During his time as a student, he worked in steel mills to support himself. This is an important link that formed his experience in the steel material that would profoundly influence his career as an artist. At a time when canvases and paints were the norm for artists, Serra was recorded to have made his first sculptures in fibreglass and rubber in 1966. In the late 1960s, Serra began working with rolled or forged steel to produce his sculptures in this non-traditional material. By the early 1970s, steel was Serra’s predominant choice of material. The steel that Serra uses was said to take approximately eight years to ten years to develop its patina. Only when the steel’s surface is fully oxidised, the colour is then stabilised.

The year 1977 marks the year when Serra’s first forged sculpture, titled The Berlin Block (for Charlie Chaplin) now resides in the sculpture garden of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany. From Berlin to international galleries all over the world, where Serra’s work is present, you will often find children having a good time running around his sculptures. Serra’s sculptures challenged and rejected the concept of sculptures being placed on a pedestal, and created a positive tension between the sculpture and the viewer. The simplicity of how his work is presented, even though complex and complicated in its execution, is hidden in its design and construction. At times, the gravity-challenging sculptures remind me of the days of collaborating and negotiating with structural engineers. This is true in Serra’s workflow as it was documented that he works in scaled models and uses them to discuss and solve structural challenges with his team.  It is in the simplicity of Serra’s work - the light appearance, unfussy and unprecious nature of his work invites one to engage with or within it. His work presents itself in a way that encourages someone to engage with it, rather than simply being an observer or a bystander. Perhaps that is why I often see children running around, between and within freely by Serra’s sculptures.

Richard Serra was quoted saying “How the work alters a given site is the issue, not the persona of the author.” Through this short quote, the artist revealed how he views what he does and what he may place importance on. In the 1970s, Serra actually had a number of life-altering events including the death of his parents and also filed for divorce from his first wife Nancy Graves. In London, UK, one of his sculptures titled Fulcrum permanently lives in a publicly accessible space by Liverpool Street station. The sculpture Fulcrum was erected in 1987, approximately 55 ft tall, made out of Corten steel and was commissioned by British developer British Land and GIC. The piece is a strong landmark to the train station’s Western entrance, anchoring the site and the Broadgate development. Again here, five pieces of Corten steel appear to be lightly propped against each other, creating an enclosed space with three entrances. As one looks up to the sky, one will notice the feelings generated. In my case, I remember feeling how small we are on this planet. This unprecious nature of Serra’s work that makes you think broadly and stir up emotions earned him the respect and admiration of people of all ages.

Leaving us at the age of 85, Richard Serra left his work that challenges scale, material, and volume, but most importantly to me, is in how he utilised his canvas to push the boundaries of large-scale sculptures and carved out a category of his own, one that changes how people act and feel around them. All the signs of great artworks in my opinion, the world needs more of it. Richard Serra was said to have found inspiration from Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns, and now we have lost a great master in sculptures.

Goodbye, Richard Serra.