Richard Serra, Sculpture and Drawings

Richard Serra’s (b. 1938) first solo exhibitions were held at the Galleria La Salita, Rome, 1966, and, in the United States, at the Leo Castelli Warehouse, New York, in 1969. His first solo museum exhibition was held at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1970. Serra has since participated in documenta 5 (1972), 6 (1977), 7 (1982), and 8 (1987), in Kassel; the Venice Biennales of 1980, 1984, 2001, and 2013; and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual and Biennial exhibitions of 1968, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1995, and 2006.

Serra has had solo exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1977; Kunsthalle Tübingen, 1978; Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 1978; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1980; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, 1984; Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, 1985; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1986; Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk, 1986; Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster, 1987; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, 1987; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1988; Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 1990; Kunsthaus Zürich, 1990; CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, 1990; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1992; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 1992; Dia Center for the Arts, New York, 1997; Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, 1997-1998; Trajan’s Market, Rome, 2000; Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis, 2003; and Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples, 2004. 

In 2005, eight large-scale works by Serra were installed permanently at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and in 2007 The Museum of Modern Art, New York presented the retrospective Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years. His work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, in 2008 (MONUMENTA 2008: Richard Serra: Promenade), and in 2011-2012, the exhibition Brancusi-Serra traveled from the Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. A traveling survey of Serra’s drawings was on view in 2011-2012 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and The Menil Collection, Houston (which was the organizing venue).

In 2014, the Qatar Museum Authority presented a two-venue retrospective survey of Serra’s work at the QMA Gallery and the Al Riwaq exhibition space, Doha; also in Qatar, a new permanent, site-specific work, East-West/West-East was installed in the Brouq Nature Reserve in the Zekreet Desert. The same year, an exhibition of the artist’s works on paper was presented at the Instituto Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro. In 2017, the Museum Wiesbaden organized the exhibition Richard Serra: Props, Films, Early Works on the occasion of the artist being awarded the Alexej von Jawlensky Prize, and an exhibition of Serra’s prints was on view at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. An overview of the artist’s work in film and video is currently on view at the Kunstmuseum Basel (through October 15, 2017); and the artist’s recent drawings were featured in a solo exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (from June 24 – September 24, 2017).

Serra has been awarded numerous prizes and awards, including a Fulbright Grant (1965); National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1974); The Carnegie Prize (1985); Praemium Imperiale, Japan Arts Association (1994); Leone d’Oro, Venice Biennale (2001); Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, République Française (2008); Chevalier de l’Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur, République Française (2015); and the Alexej von Jawlensky Prize, City of Wiesbaden (2017), among others.

In 2013 in New York, David Zwirner presented Richard Serra: Early Work, a critically acclaimed exhibition that brought together significant works from 1966-1971. The accompanying catalogue extensively covers this period of the artist’s career with a compendium of archival texts and photographs and an essay by Hal Foster. In 2014, the gallery presented an exhibition of new drawings, Richard Serra: Vertical and Horizontal Reversals; a catalogue accompanied the exhibition and included an essay by Gordon Hughes. Richard Serra: Equal, an installation in forged weatherproof steel, was presented at David Zwirner, New York, in 2015. That work is now in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2016, David Zwirner Books/Steidl published Richard Serra: Forged Steel, which surveys the artist’s work in forged steel since 1977 and features scholarship by Richard Shiff and texts by the artist.