This etching, made expressly for the Shelter Foundation, is evidence of the artist’s intensive preoccupation with printmaking which commenced in the 1970’s. No less dense or tension-filled than his massive steel sculptures, this work puts to use, with utmost precision, the variegated qualities of the color black. The round form becomes increasingly dense as it presses out towards the edges of the picture frame, with its rim now almost hermetically sealed. In the interior, this movement gives way to a different dynamic and, together with the swirling energy in the movement of the dense black oval, subtly expands the graphic’s two-dimensionality.
Richard Serra (*1939 in San Francisco, USA; living in New York, USA)
Richard Serra is recognized as the most important sculptor living today. Already in the early 1960’s he began experimenting with vastly differing materials such as lead, rubber and steel. The spectrum of his work embraces sculpture, drawing, print graphics, film and performance. Through these media he probes how certain givens affecting how we perceive the world around us—space, dynamics, time, weight, stability and instability—can be newly experienced. Monumental work complexes like “The Matter of Time“ (2005) which can be seen in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, or “Terminal“ (1977/89) in Bochum, are shaping public spaces worldwide. Richard Serra and his wife Clara Weyergraf-Serra have assumed the patronage for “Art for Shelter”.
