Richard Serra: Drawings 2015-2017
Richard Serra
Published on the occasion of “Richard Serra: Drawings 2015–2017; Rambles, Composites, Rotterdam Verticals, Rotterdam Horizontals, Rifts” at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, this catalogue is an in-depth look at the artist’s recent drawing practice. The exhibition encompasses more than 70 works from five different series, “Rambles,” “Composites,” “Rifts,” “Rotterdam Horizontals,” and “Rotterdam Verticals,” many of which have never been seen before publicly, as well as a selection of his notebooks and films. Examining the ways properties inherent to sculpture are brought onto paper, the drawings are epistemological adjuncts to Serra’s lifelong sculptural explorations. Designed by McCall Associates in close collaboration with the artist, Drawings 2015–2017 features new scholarship by art historian Neil Cox and exhibition curator Francesco Stocchi, a chronology of the drawings by curator Michelle White, as well as a historical text by Albert Camus selected by Serra. This book introduces readers to Serra’s most recent series and reaffirms his innovation and contribution to the practice of drawing.
Richard Serra was born in San Francisco in 1938. His first solo exhibitions were held at the Galleria La Salita in Rome in 1966 and at the Leo Castelli Warehouse in New York in 1969. Subsequent solo museum shows have been held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1977); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1986 and 2007); among other venues. In 2014, Serra permanently installed a major sculpture in the desert of the Brouq Nature Reserve in western Qatar. His books with Steidl include Sculpture 1985–1998 (1999), The Matter of Time (2005), Te Tuhirangi Contour (2005), Notebooks (2011), Early Work (2014) and Vertical and Horizontal Reversals (2015).