American artist Richard Serra has died at the age of 85. Various media report this.
Richard Serra (1938-2024) is best known for his gigantic corten steel sculptures. He described himself as an artist interested in shapes, not images. His abstract sculptures made of steel plates, straight or curved, are often large, massive and ask the visitor to relate physically to them. The idea is often to walk past or through it and ask yourself what it does to your body and how you experience the space (or landscape) differently.
Mountains in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands you can find several works by Richard Serra. Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar built a special room (with a good foundation) for the very heavy work Open Ended (2007-08), a sculpture made of 216 tons of steel that you can wander through. It is also located on Museumplein in Amsterdam, right in front of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Sight Point (for Leo Castelli)designed in 1972. And the work of art is located in a park in Zeewolde Sea Level (1996), part of the Land Art Flevoland collection and one of the few works of art by Serra in concrete. This work of art recently made the news because it is being rebuilt and Serra’s studio is contributing one million euros to the project.
Image: Sea Level by Richard Serra, photo: Jordi Huisman
