Richard Serra died Tuesday at 85, so it seemed a good time to reprise this “tribute” to him from last summer’s Opposable.
Serra had a lifelong partnership with monumental industrial shapes and shipyards. Under the weight of terrible tragedy, there is some irony then, that the biggest news story on the day of his death displayed the forms of massive industry, mighty ships and bridges, and forces of metal transformed.
Here’s an excerpt from an excellent and lively obit for Serra from The Guardian:
Serra was born in San Francisco in 1939 to a Russian-Jewish mother and a Spanish father, who fitted pipes in a shipyard. The young Serra was inspired by seeing a ship launched as a child and was encouraged to draw by his mother. He studied fine art at Yale alongside peers who included Chuck Close and his eventual first wife Nancy Graves – but was suspended for two weeks after pulling a prank on the visiting critic, artist Robert Rauschenberg, that involved bringing a live chicken into class.