Richard Serra, Untitled, 1972-1973, Paintstick on paper, 37-13/16 x 50", Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase with funds from Susan Morse Hilles, 74.10, © Richard Serra, Photo: Sheldan C. Collins.

Richard Serra, Taraval Beach, 1977, Paintstick on Belgian linen, Shown installed at the Whitney Museum of American, Art, Whitney Biennial, Private Collection, © Richard Serra, Photo: BeVan Davies.

Richard Serra, Heir, 1973, Paintstick and graphite on paper, 114-5/8 x 42-1⁄4", The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired with matching funds from Mr. and Mrs. S.I. Newhouse Jr. and the National Endowment for the Arts, © Richard Serra, Photo: Thomas Greisel.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
212-535-7710
New York
The Tisch Galleries, 2nd floor
Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective
April 13-August 28, 2011

The first retrospective of drawings of American contemporary artist Richard Serra, Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective traces the crucial role that drawing has played in Richard Serra’s work for more than 40 years. Although Serra is well known for 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 several large-scale works 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. 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, Serra made the first of his monumentally scaled Installation Drawings, some of which extend from floor to ceiling and are 10 to 20 feet wide. 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. 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 alter perceptions of spatial relationships.

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, Serra has continued to invent new techniques and to explore a variety of surface effects, primarily on paper. In 1989, Serra made a series of large diptychs. 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 Serra’s drawing series made in the 1990s, such as Deadweights (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 extremely dense and nearly the entire surface of the paper is covered in a layer of viscous pigment. To make these drawings, 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.

As part of the retrospective, Serra will create a site-specific installation drawing for the Metropolitan’s presentation. The exhibition also features a new drawing series from 2010 titled Elevational Weights.

Complementing the drawings 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.

The exhibition is made possible in part by the Jane and Robert Carroll Fund and was organized by the Menil Collection, Houston.

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 the Leo Castelli Warehouse, in 1967. His work has been the subject of major exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1977), Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris (1983), The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1986 and 2007), Serpentine Gallery, London (1992), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (1992), The Drawing Center, New York (1994), Dia: Chelsea, New York (1997), Guggenheim Bilbao (2005), and the Grand Palais, Paris (2008), among other museums.

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, the Orden Pour le mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste in 2002, and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 2010.

Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective is curated by 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 coordinated by Magdalena Dabrowski, Special Consultant in the Museum’s Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art. The 176-page exhibition catalogue features 160 illustrations and essays by Bernice Rose, Michelle White, 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: Serra’s Notes on Drawings; an illustrated chronology related to the artist’s drawing production; a selected exhibition history; and a selected bibliography. The catalogue is published by The Menil Collection and distributed by Yale University Press. It will be available for sale in the Met’s book shops ($50, hardcover; $40, paperback).

After presentation at the Metropolitan, Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective travels to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, October 15, 2011-January 16, and Menil Collection, Houston,March 2-June 10.

Richard Serra, Notebook: Corbusier, Notre Dame du Haut: Ronchamp, France, 1991, Graphite on paper, Sheet: 8-1⁄4 x 11-3⁄4", Private Collection, © Richard Serra, Photo: Rob McKeever.

Richard Serra, Belts, 1966-67, Vulcanized rubber and neon tubing, 6' x 25' x 20", Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Panza Collection, © 2007 Richard Serra, Photography Peter Moore.

Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
Between Fifth
and Sixth avenues
New York
212-708-9400
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden,
first floor
Contemporary Galleries, second floor
International Council of MoMA Exhibition Galleries, sixth floor
Richard Serra Sculpture:
Forty Years
June 3-September 10, 2007

One of the preeminent sculptors of our era, Richard Serra (American, b. 1939) has long been acclaimed for his challenging, innovative work that emphasizes materiality and engagement between viewer, site, and work. In the early 1960s, Serra and the Minimalist artists of his generation turned to unconventional, industrial materials and began to accentuate physical properties of their art. Over the years, Serra has expanded his spatial and temporal approach to sculpture and focusing primarily on large-scale work, including many site-specific works that engage with a particular architectural, urban, or landscape setting. This exhibition presents the artist's 40-year career, from early experiments with materials such as rubber, neon, and lead to monumental late-career pieces, including Intersection II (1992) and Torqued Ellipse IV (1999), along with three new works never before exhibited.. With works on view throughout the Museum and in The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years displays the vision of this formidable artist, who has radicalized and extended the definition of sculpture. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

In the early 1960s, Serra worked with unconventional, industrial materials and began to accentuate the physical properties of his work. The exhibition begins with works from the 1960s, including Belts (1966-67) and Doors (1966-67), for which he used materials such as vulcanized rubber and neon, breaking with the traditional definition of sculpture by presenting unorthodox materials on the wall. Serra later expanded his spatial and temporal approach to sculpture, focusing primarily on large-scale, site-specific works that create a dialogue with a particular architectural, urban, or landscape setting. One of the first major steel pieces by Serra, Circuit II (1972-86), now in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, consists of hot-rolled steel plates emerging from four corners of a room, providing an immersive environment as the viewer travels between the changing spaces established by the work. The equally bold Delineator (1974-75) comprises a large plate of hot-rolled steel nstalled on the ceiling and an equal-size plate on the floor, creating dialogues between ceiling and floor, and viewer and site.

Serra’s purely abstract works invite a distinct interaction with viewers through the experience of walking in and around the sculptures and experiencing the changing environment. Intersection II (1992-93) and Torqued Ellipse IV (1999), which are in the Museum’s collection, will be featured in The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Despite the weight of the weatherproof steel used for these works, the sculptures present themselves with a certain buoyancy.

Three new sculptures — Band (2006), Sequence (2006), and Torqued Torus
Inversion (2006)-will be installed in the Museum’s second-floor Contemporary Galleries. This block-wide column-free space, with nearly 22-foot-high ceilings, features reinforced floors and special oversized entranceways that accommodate the extraordinary size and weight of these large-scale works, which weigh up to 200 tons.

The extensive and varied installation of Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years will highlight the extraordinary invention and vision of this influential artist who has radicalized and extended the definition of sculpture.

The Curators
Kynaston McShine assumed the position of Chief Curator at Large at MoMA in 2003. He was appointed Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture in 1968, Curator in 1971, and Senior Curator in 1980. He served as Acting Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture from 2001 to 2003. In 1971, he initiated the innovative Projects series, devoted to experimental work by younger artists. He has also organized numerous key installations and exhibitions, most recently Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul (2006). He was responsible for the inaugural installation of The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden when the Museum reopened in midtown in November of 2004, and the installation of the collection at MoMA QNS, the Museum’s temporary home in Long Island City, Queens, which opened to the public in June 2002. Some of the notable exhibitions he has organized for the Museum include The Museum as Muse, Artists Reflect (1999), Andy Warhol: A Retrospective (1989), Berlinart 1961–1987 (1987), An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture (1984), Joseph Cornell (1980), Robert Rauschenberg (1977), Information (1970), Marcel Duchamp (1973), and The Natural Paradise: Painting in America 1800–1950 (1976). In addition, Mr. McShine is the recipient of several curatorial distinctions, including the Award for Curatorial Excellence, The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, 2003, and the Award for Achievement as a Scholar and a Curator, Studio Museum in Harlem, 2004.

Lynne Cooke has been Curator at Dia Art Foundation since 1991. She was co-curator of the 1991 Carnegie International, Artistic Director of the 1996 Sydney Biennale, and has curated exhibitions in numerous venues in North America, Europe, and elsewhere. She has taught and lectured widely at schools and universities throughout the United States and Europe. From 1979 to 1989 she was a Lecturer in the History of Art Department at University College, London. In addition to teaching at Columbia University in the Graduate Fine Arts Department, she is currently a Visiting Critic at Yale University and is on the faculty for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. Among her numerous publications are recent essays on the works of Rodney Graham, Jorge Pardo, Diana Thater, and Agnes Martin. She was the recipient of the 2006 Award for Curatorial Excellence from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, the Independent Curators International Agnes Gund Curatorial Award in 2000, and four awards from the International Association of Art Critics, for exhibitions of Hanne Darboven (1996), Jessica Stockholder (1996), Juan Muñoz (1997) and Robert Irwin (1998). Born in Geelong, Australia, Ms. Cooke received a B.A. from Melbourne University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Courtauld Institute, London University.

Richard Serra, Torqued Torus Inversion, 2006, Weatherproof steel, Two torqued toruses, each overall: 12' 9" x 36' 1" x 58' 9", plate: 2" thick, Collection of the artist, © 2007 Richard Serra, Collection of the artist.