Richard Serra (b. 1939) is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist. He is particularly known for his monumental public works, often site-specific and in urban plazas. Serra was educated at Yale University, receiving a BFA and MFA, the latter in 1964. During and after college he worked in steel mills, which informed a working-class aesthetic in his work, as well as his use of materials, particularly in his frequent creation of large-scale minimalist works assembled from giant steel plates. Influenced by the work of Jasper Johns, Serra also stresses the use of raw materials and the significance of process and performance in his work. His constructions from large rolls and sheets of metal are self-supporting and meant to transform over time; the curved, giant metal walls create paths for the viewer to explore. Serra’s work is in the permanent collection in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and he has shown his work at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Grand Palais, Paris. As a filmmaker/videographer he has produced numerous works, many focusing on the manufacture of steel. The Serra work on loan to Pitzer College addresses the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal.
Pitzer College Art Galleries
