Richard Serra: Post-Abstract Expressionism
Friday, February 23, 2018 at 9:00AM 
Richard Serra - Trip Hammer - 1988 (reproduced 1997) - Steel - Unconfirmed: 2743 x 3315 x 1346 mm - Tate Collection, London (click photo for larger image)Richard Serra (born 1938) is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist known for working with large-scale assemblies of sheet metal. He is one of the preeminent American artists and sculptors of the post-Abstract Expressionist period.
Beginning in the late 1960s to the present, his art has played a major role in advancing the tradition of modern abstract sculpture in the aftermath of Minimalism. His work draws new, widespread attention to sculpture's potential for experience by viewers in both physical and visual terms, no less often within a site-specific, if not highly public setting.
Serra's concern with the implicit relationship between his sculpture's conception and its intended site has led directly to a new international discourse (often a heated one) regarding the role and governance of art in public spaces such as municipal parks, corporate plazas, and memorial sites—where the work of art might virtually interrupt viewers' daily routines in ways that are not necessarily universally welcomed among a given community.
The work featured here “consists of a pair of large thin steel plates of equal dimensions assembled in a T-shaped formation. Made from a rust-coloured weathering steel, which is particularly resistant to corrosion, each plate is over two and a half metres in length, almost a metre and a half in width, and only five centimetres thick. One plate stands vertically on the floor in a corner of the gallery, positioned diagonally so that one of its edges points towards the centre of the room, while balanced on its top edge is the second plate, lying flat with its corners just touching the walls. The plates’ surfaces bear marks and patches of orange and brown, which are interspersed with the base tones of black and grey. The edges are a rusty orange colour, and one side of the vertically oriented plate features a serial number.” (Tate Collection, London)
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