Serra, Richard, 1939–, American sculptor, b. San Francisco. He creates large-scale minimalist (see minimalism minimalism, schools of contemporary art and music, with their origins in the 1960s, that have emphasized simplicity and objectivity.

Minimalism in the Visual Arts

..... Click the link for more information. ) works in metal, concrete, fiberglass, and other materials, 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 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); studies by R. Krauss (1986) and H. Foster, ed. (2000).

Serra, Richard

(born Nov. 2, 1939, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.) U.S. sculptor. He paid for his education at the University of California by working in steel factories. From 1961 he studied with Josef Albers at Yale University. He settled in New York City c. 1966 and began to experiment with new materials. In 1967–68 he displayed a series of works entitled Splashes, which were pieces of molten lead thrown against a wall in a gallery; the resulting solidified lead could be seen as sculpture, although Serra himself viewed the process of creation as more important than the end result. In 1969–70 gravity became a major element of his work; the Prop series consisted of huge plates of lead or steel leaning against each other, supported only by their opposing weights. He is best known for his enormous, sometimes controversial, outdoor pieces that interact with the environment, particularly Tilted Arc, installed in New York's Federal Plaza in 1981 but removed in 1989. His work has been defined as Minimalist.

Serra, Richard (Anthony) (1939– ) sculptor; born in San Francisco. He worked in a steel plant during his schooling at the University of California, studied with Josef Albers at Yale (M.F.A. 1964), traveled in Italy (1964–65), and settled in New York City. He is known for his gravity series, such as Belts (1966–67), and his large metal plate works, as in House of Cards (1969). His minimalist approach to sculpture has not appealed to some viewers, and one of his works, Tilted Arc (1981), installed on the plaza of the Jacob Javits Federal Building in New York City, was ordered removed (1985) because of adverse public reactions.