Conversations about Sculpture“The rhythm of the body moving through space has been the motivating source of most of my work.”—Richard Serra Drawn from talks between celebrated artist Richard Serra and acclaimed art historian Hal Foster held over a fifteen-year period, this volume offers revelations into Serra’s prolific six-decade career and the ideas that have informed his working practice. Conversations about Sculpture is both an intimate look at Serra’s life and work, with candid reflections on personal moments of discovery, and a provocative examination of sculptural form from antiquity to today. Serra and Foster explore such subjects as the artist’s work in steel mills as a young man; the impact of music, dance, and architecture on his art; the importance of materiality and site specificity to his aesthetic; the controversies and contradictions his work has faced; and his belief in sculpture as experience. They also discuss sources of inspiration—from Donatello and Brancusi to Japanese gardens and Machu Picchu—revealing a history of sculpture across time and culture through the eyes of one of the medium’s most brilliant figures. Introduced with an insightful preface by Foster, this probing dialogue is beautifully illustrated with duotone images that bring to life both Serra's work and his key commitments. |
Contents
Preface | 1 |
Sand Dunes and Steel Mills | 7 |
Down and Dirty Minimalism | 19 |
To Lift To Splash To Prop??? | 39 |
Specific Sites | 62 |
Prime Objects | 91 |
Torqued Shapes | 112 |
Passages and Intervals | 127 |
History Doesnt Go Away | 184 |
Sculpture Hadnt Dealt with Steel | 200 |
Controversies | 217 |
Contradictions | 235 |
Notes | 257 |
Acknowledgments | 260 |
| 261 | |
Illustration Credits | 266 |
Common terms and phrases
abstraction Alberto Giacometti architecture art world artists Berlin Block Bilbao Brancusi Carl Andre Clara Weyergraf-Serra context contradiction culture CW-S Dan Flavin deal Donald Judd Donatello drawing early elevation Ellipses experience figure film Flavin floor forged frame gallery Giacometti gravity Hal Foster history of sculpture House of Cards idea industrial installation institution critique interested Judd landscape pieces language lead look Machu Picchu material mean Minimalism Minimalist Modern Art monument move Museum of Modern painting Peter Moore Photo Peter Moore Picasso plates plaza Pollock prime object Pulitzer Piece relation Richard Serra Robert Smithson Ronchamp rubber sense site-specific Smithson space Spirals splash piece steel mills structure studio talk Tatlin there’s things thought Tilted Arc torqued Torqued Ellipses torqued pieces tower understand urban vertical viewer walk wall Warhol Weatherproof steel weight Writings Interviews Yale York