Richard Serra, the celebrated American artist recognized for his colossal steel sculptures adorned with a weathered patina, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 85, as reported by the New York Times. He succumbed to pneumonia at his residence on New York’s Long Island, confirmed by his lawyer, John Silberman.
Born in San Francisco in 1938 to a Spanish father and Russian mother, Serra’s upbringing was influenced by frequent visits to marine shipyards and his early experiences laboring in steel mills. Despite the grand scale of his creations, Serra was considered a minimalist artist, focusing on the interaction between his artwork and the viewer, rather than intricate imagery.
Following his education at the University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University, Serra relocated to New York in 1966, where he commenced crafting art from industrial materials like metal, fiberglass, and rubber.
Despite later achieving considerable acclaim, one of his works from 1981 faced severe criticism, with “Tilted Arc,” a 120-foot steel structure, being removed from public display in Lower Manhattan due to public dissent.
Serra’s breakthrough came in 1969 when he was featured in the exhibition “Nine Young Artists: Theodoron Awards” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Subsequently, his exploration of Mozarabic architecture in Spain during the early 1980s garnered him recognition in Europe, with solo exhibitions at prominent museums in Germany and France.
His artistic contributions were particularly esteemed in Spain, where the Reina Sofia museum presented a retrospective of his work in 1992, and a dedicated exhibition at the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao showcased his oeuvre.
Described as a “stocky, powerful-looking man” in a 2002 New Yorker profile titled “Man of Steel,” Serra’s artistic journey saw a pivotal moment of self-realization at Madrid’s Prado museum when confronted with Diego Velazquez’s masterpiece “Las Meninas,” leading him to renounce painting in favor of sculptural endeavors.
Richard Serra leaves behind a legacy of monumental artworks that continue to captivate audiences worldwide, solidifying his position as one of the most influential figures in contemporary art.
