Wright Auction

Richard Serra was born in San Francisco in 1938 and studied at the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara from 1957 to 1961, where he received a BA in English literature, before moving across the country to complete his BFA and MFA in painting at Yale University from 1961 to 1964. While at Yale, Serra worked with Josef Albers on his book The Interaction of Color (1963) and received prestigious fellowships which allowed him to spend a few years working in Europe and northern Africa. The young artist was given his first solo exhibition in 1966 at Galleria La Salita, Rome. He moved back to the United States later that year, settling in New York among a circle of friends that included Carl Andre, Walter De Maria, Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, and Robert Smithson.

By the late 1960s, Serra began making innovative sculptures using materials like rubber, lead, and steel, a path that led him to become one of the most important sculptors of the late 20th century. Rather than focusing on the metaphorical or allegorical qualities of sculpture, Serra focused on the literal, employing the very weight and nature of his chosen materials to create three-dimensional experiences. His works are to be walked around, to, and in. Philosopher John Rajchman writes of his creations: “Into our movements in space Serra’s works induce trajectories that cannot be centered in the usual relations of subjectivity and objectivity, inside and outside—that try to defeat space’s habitual coordinates (up, down, right, left, high, low), unmooring us from our usual sense of orientation, of ‘being there.’”

Serra has been honored with solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany (1978); the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris (1984); the Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany (1985); and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1986). He received the Wilhelm Lehmbruck prize for sculpture in Duisburg in 1991 and, just one year later, a retrospective at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. In 1993, Serra was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His notable prizes and awards include 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, Italy (2001); Praemium Imperiale, Japan Art Association (1994); Carnegie Prize (1985); a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1974); and a Fulbright Grant (1965).

Serra continued to exhibit in both group and solo shows and to produce large-scale steel structures for sites throughout the world well into the 21st century. From 1997 to 1998 his Torqued Ellipses (1997) were exhibited at and acquired by the Dia Center for the Arts, New York. In 2005 eight major works by Serra were installed permanently at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and in 2007 the Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted a major retrospective of his work.