Serra’s monumental “Forty Years” review at MoMA
June 1st, 2007
Running June 3 - September 10, The Museum of Modern Art’s retrospective exhibit of the work of Richard Serra brings forty years worth of sculpture, often gigantic, to the museum’s forefront. On Tuesday night, LVMH hosted a dinner in honor of the new MoMA’s most ambitious sculpture exhibition to date. The opening of Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years drew over 500 guests to the midtown museum. Among them were painters Brice Marden, Frank Stella, and Chuck Close and a clutch of connoisseurs in the form of Larry Gagosian, Veronica Hearst, and Lily Safra. Beginning at the inception of the artist’s career in the late 1960s, the exhibit features his work with nontraditional materials like neon, rubber and lead, and moves chronologically through the many phases of Serra’s sculpting.
His large-scale works like 1993’s “Intersection II” and 1998’s “Torqued Ellipse IV” play with the notion of landscape and setting. The enormity of the exhibition, spanning not only years, but also multiple floors and a sculpture garden, excites the artist; “to bring that work together in one place,” explains Serra “would enable anyone going there to understand its evolution.”
Though his work is frequently thought of as site-specific, Serra is not concerned about losing its impact. “You can go anywhere you want, but” Serra adds, “anywhere you turn you are within the volume not only of the encapsulating architecture but of the field that unfolds as sculpture. The entire field becomes one of sculpture, as you’re spun into and out of the different pieces.”
“Forty Years” will also include three new works created in 2006 specifically for the MoMA’s show.
Richard Serra, Sculpture: 40 Years [MoMA]
The Vision of Richard Serra [Time]
