The Life and Art of Richard Serra - Coursework Example

Richard Serra Order No. 299305 No. of pages: 5 6530 The realm of art is to a great degree dependent upon the imagination of the artist, whichin turn is shaped by the times in which the artist creates his work. The work of Richard Serra, one of the most controversial sculptors of the modern age, is marked by a great inclination to use materials, like steel and lead, the greatest produce of a modern industrialized society. The sculptures of Serra, are marked by a conscious decision to involve the viewer into the peace created so that there is a high degree of “ engagement between the viewer, the site, and the work.” http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/14) Richard Serra was born to a Spanish mother and his father was Russian Jewish. He grew up in San Francisco and studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where his subject of choice was English literature although later on, at Yale, he studied Fine Arts. His guiding lights from whom he derived his inspiration were Phillip Guston and Morton Feldman who was an experimental composer. Serra’s great epiphany as an artist took root when he was on a short visit to Spain and happened to see a painting called ‘Las Meninas by Velazquez which threw him ‘into a state of total confusion.’ This was his starting point which made him think what he was going to do in art. (The Observer, 2008) During his student days, on the West Coast he worked in the steel mills in order to supplement his finances and it was this exposure to steel and other allied products that was to have a great impact on his works. He showed his inclination for abstract expressionist work when he created his first piece of art by hurling molten lead, which created large splashes on the wall of the studio. Richard Serra is hailed as one of the greatest practitioners of minimalist art, for which his works were generally created using rolls or sheets of metal. Being site-specific, Serra’s sculptures were created on the site, and on account of their unwieldy size, the sculptures are placed in public spaces, and it was this uncommon practice which made the artist earn the dubious distinction of being the first artist whose work was rejected by the public. The piece in question was entitled ‘Tilted Arc”, placed in the Federal Plaza in New York City. As the name suggests, this work of art was a 3.5 meter high arc, with a gentle curve, made of mildly rusting steel. The workers in the nearby offices complained that the steel ark restricted movement through the Plaza, and hence, it had to go. In spite of the courts ruling in favor of the workers, Serra argued that the sculpture was created in such a way so as to be in consonance with the place where it had been installed. After much wrangling, Serra had to give up, and his work of art was dismantled and reduced to scrap. Serras love for the unconventional is evident in the stylish way in which he uses industrial materials and the unusual look that he imparts to every day resources. The work of Serra, on account of its larger-than-life proportions, are suitable generally for the outdoors and in most cases they serve as an extension to the existing landscape. The use of unconventional materials shaped in unconventional ways, may have branded him as a radical and controversial artist, but in his works we find an artistic exploration of the multifarious and unimaginable ways in which ordinary materials can be distorted into shapes such as never seen before. In the Guggenheim Museum in Bilao, can be found one of his biggest sculptures called snake, which is made up of steel sheets. In a retrospective held at the Museum of modern art, the public comes face to face with The Band, a “ twisted ribbon of 2 inch steel, richly crusted with cocoa colored rust, billowing back and forth, like a sheet of rubber repeatedly folded on itself.” http://whitehotmagazine.com/index.php?action=articles&wh_article_id=732) Richard Serra is most famously known as one of the most controversial artist of America whose thought and vision provoking art work did not earn him a very good name, but in fact was threatened with death by many incensed New Yorkers. Bill he remains one of the most combative figures in the world of art, yet he is hailed as one of the world’s “greatest living sculptors.” In a rare interview given to Sean O’Hagan of ‘The Observer’ (2008) he speaks frankly on his life and times bringing out the fact that he was rebellious in many ways than one. He Is respected as a great iconoclast and had lived long enough to the age of 70, two witness how his provocative art work was gradually accepted by many of the critics through their groundbreaking statements of appreciation. In 2005, when he exhibited his best known work titled ‘The Matter of Time’ at the Bilbao Guggenheim, Robert Hughes a great art historian was greatly impressed and stated that Serra was not only the best sculptor alive, but the only great one at work anywhere in the 21st century. His work throughout his career has been alternatively punctuated by both controversy and acceptance. Serra calls his kind of art as a sort of skeptical negativism and age has not in any way withered his enthusiasm, in fact he seems to be as tough as the steel he makes use of in his work. One of the major controversies he had faced was when he sued the American government when they had removed a piece of public art from its site in New York. The art work consisted of two posters depicting the abuses that took place at the Abu Ghraib Prison by the Bush administration and which sold in thousands online. Passing his comments regarding this controversy, Serra is supposed to have stated I dont consider myself a political artist, but anything I can do to make a difference, I will. America is a right-wing country and Im essentially from the old left. (The Observer’ (2008) guardian.co.uk) In the Gagosian Gallery at King’s Cross, where they held the Gagosian show titled ‘Sculpture’ had giant burnished steel curves that were massive with the space barely able to encompass them. The main gallery comprised of two massive curved circles of oxidized steel made up of abstract geometrical spheres, one of which was concave and the other was convex and seemed to defy both logic and gravity. One of the great circles looms overhead, while the other seems as though it is going to fall away. Serra dedicated many of his pieces of art to great people like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Fernando Pessoa, the elusive author of the semi- mystical novel titled “The Book of Disquiet’ from Portugal and the German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the art critic David Sylvester. The piece made for Pessoa is extremely powerful and is reminiscent of shipyards, foundries and even the Berlin Wall. However, those who looked upon art as uplifting viewed this piece of art in consternation because of its massiveness. Serra who is not only older now but much wiser, has witnessed a sea change that has taken place in the attitude of the critics and the public. He alludes the change to the ‘curves’ he made use of in his series of ‘Torqued Ellipses’ which fetched him appreciation because people had not witnessed before. In Serra’s own words, ‘Modernism was a right angle; the whole 20th century was a right angle. Serra is an artist who is not easy to understand since his work does not follow any of the set principles to which the normal viewing public is accustomed to. Being aware of the unique and often controversial quality of his work Serra remains unapologetic, and he himself stated that “I think basically Im not interested in people following my work or making work like my work.” (http://metroartwork.com/Richard-Serra-biography-artwork-m-214.html) oftentimes, it is this daring approach towards creativity that allows artists to carve a niche for themselves, and in the case of Richard Serra, it has been proven, that the artist whose works were forcibly removed from public places now finds retrospectives dedicated to him in his lifetime, at some of the most respected art institutes of the world. References MoMA | Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/14 Richard Serra Biography and Artwork - MetroArtWork http://metroartwork.com/Richard-Serra-biography-artwork-m-214.html Sean O’Hagan (2008) ‘Man of Steel’, The Observer. www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/oct/05/serra.art WM | whitehot magazine of contemporary art | Summer 07, WM #4 ... http://whitehotmagazine.com/index.php?action=articles&wh_article_id=732 Read More