Richard Serra
Richard Serra (1938–2024, born San Francisco, California) was a sculptor whose monumental steel works established him as one of the most significant and formally ambitious sculptors of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Educated at the University of California and at Yale University, Serra came of age artistically in New York in the late 1960s, initially producing process-based works that explored the physical properties of materials through actions such as throwing, splashing, and propping.
His mature practice centered on large-scale steel sculpture of extraordinary physical presence. Works including the Torqued Ellipses series, the sequence of massive curved plates at Dia:Beacon, and the installation Tilted Arc engaged viewers in a direct, embodied encounter with weight, scale, and the curvature of steel in ways that redefined what sculpture could demand of its audience. His work was exhibited internationally throughout his career, with major installations at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the Grand Palais in Paris.
His work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate Modern, London, and Dia:Beacon, and others.