American artist and sculptor Richard Serra has died at his home in Long Island, New York, at the age of 85.
Considered one of his generation's greatest sculptors, Serra won international acclaim for his large-scale outdoor metal works, many of which are on display across the globe.
San Francisco native Serra originally studied painting at Yale University but turned his attention to sculpting in the 1960s, inspired by trips to Europe.
We mourn the loss of #RichardSerra whose monumental works reshaped our perceptions of space and form.
— Guggenheim Museum (@Guggenheim) March 27, 2024
Pictured: Richard Serra, "Snake," 1994-1997. In the @museoguggenheim collection. © 2024 Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. pic.twitter.com/pTbQRQ44DE
Known as the "poet of iron", Serra became world-renowned for his monumental steel structures, incorporating arcs, spirals and ellipses, engaging the viewer in an altered experience of space.
Closely identified with the minimalist art movement of the 1970s, Serra's work first gained public attention in 1981, when he installed a high curving wall of raw steel, splitting the Federal Plaza in New York City.
Entitled "Tilted Arc", The sculpture generated a public backlash, and was ultimately removed, but not before putting its creator in the art world spotlight.
which stand in the desert of Zekreet during the AFC Asian Cup
on February 1, 2024 in Zekreet, Qatar. (Pic: Masashi Hara/Getty Images)
Over the past four decades, the artist created a series of ambitious sculptural projects; in 2005 eight major works by Serra were installed permanently at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and in 2007 the Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted a major retrospective of his work.
He remained active well into his 80s, with a exhibition of recent works on paper due to open in London this April.
In a statement, prominent art dealer and gallerist Larry Gagosan said: "Richard Serra was a titan who transformed the very definition of sculpture and drawing. More than that, he changed us, how we see and feel our way toward an experience that is elemental and sublime. He put us at the center of his art."
R.I.P. Man of Steel, preeminent sculptor, Richard Serra; 85; 1938 - 2024.
— Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) March 27, 2024
Epic process and materialist, soothsayer of heavy metal. #RichardSerra pic.twitter.com/DgoA0bQ65w
Married to the art historian Clara Weyergraf, Serra died at home on Tuesday at his home in New York. The cause of death was pneumonia, his lawyer John Silberman confirmed to the New York Times.
