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2/6/2007

Richard Serra

The Museum of Modern Art - MoMA, New York

Sculpture: Forty Years

Landmark Exhibition Includes Monumental Sculptures and Newly Created Works

MAJOR RETROSPECTIVE OF RICHARD SERRA PRESENTED IN THREE EXHIBITION SPACES AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art Gallery, sixth floor Contemporary Galleries, second floor (through September 24) The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden

The exhibition is organized by Kynaston McShine, Chief Curator at Large, The Museum of Modern Art, and Lynne Cooke, Curator, Dia Art Foundation.

One of the preeminent sculptors of our era, Richard Serra (American, b. 1939) is acclaimed for his challenging and innovative work, which emphasizes process, materials, and an engagement with viewer and site. Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years is a major exhibition of 27 works that span the artist’s career—from his early experiments with materials such as rubber, neon, and lead, to monumental pieces of his late career and three new sculptures being exhibited for the first time. Works in the exhibition are drawn from museums and public institutions, private collections, and the artist.

In the early 1960s, Serra worked with unconventional, industrial materials and began to accentuate the physical properties of his work. The exhibition begins with works from the 1960s, including Belts (1966–67) and Doors (1966–67), for which he used materials such as vulcanized rubber and neon, breaking with the traditional definition of sculpture by presenting these unorthodox materials on the wall. Serra subsequently expanded his spatial and temporal approach to sculpture, focusing primarily on large-scale, site-specific works that create a dialogue with a particular architectural, urban, or landscape setting. One of the first major steel pieces by Serra, Circuit II (1972–86), now in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, consists of hot-rolled steel plates emerging from four corners of a room, providing an immersive environment as the viewer travels between the changing spaces established by the work. The equally bold Delineator (1974–75) comprises a large plate of hot-rolled steel installed on the ceiling and an equal-size plate on the floor, creating dialogues between ceiling and floor, and viewer and site.

Serra’s purely abstract works invite a distinct interaction with viewers through the experience of walking in and around the sculptures and experiencing the changing environment. Intersection II (1992-93) and Torqued Ellipse IV (1999), which are in the Museum’s collection, will be featured in The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Despite the weight of the weatherproof steel used for these works, the sculptures present themselves with a certain buoyancy.

Three new sculptures-Band (2006), Sequence (2006), and Torqued Torus Inversion (2006)-will be installed in the Museum’s second-floor Contemporary Galleries. This block-wide column-free space, with nearly 22-foot-high ceilings, features reinforced floors and special oversized entranceways that accommodate the extraordinary size and weight of these large-scale works, which weigh up to 200 tons.

The extensive and varied installation of Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years will highlight the extraordinary invention and vision of this influential artist who has radicalized and extended the definition of sculpture.

ABOUT THE CURATORS:

Kynaston McShine assumed the position of Chief Curator at Large at MoMA in 2003. He was appointed Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture in 1968, Curator in 1971, and Senior Curator in 1980. He served as Acting Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture from 2001 to 2003. In 1971, he initiated the innovative Projects series, devoted to experimental work by younger artists. He has also organized numerous key installations and exhibitions, most recently Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul (2006). He was responsible for the inaugural installation of The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden when the Museum reopened in midtown in November of 2004, and the installation of the collection at MoMA QNS, the Museum’s temporary home in Long Island City, Queens, which opened to the public in June 2002. Some of the notable exhibitions he has organized for the Museum include The Museum as Muse, Artists Reflect (1999), Andy Warhol: A Retrospective (1989), Berlinart 1961–1987 (1987), An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture (1984), Joseph Cornell (1980), Robert Rauschenberg (1977), Information (1970), Marcel Duchamp (1973), and The Natural Paradise: Painting in America 1800–1950 (1976). In addition, Mr. McShine is the recipient of several curatorial distinctions, including the Award for Curatorial Excellence, The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, 2003, and the Award for Achievement as a Scholar and a Curator, Studio Museum in Harlem, 2004.

Lynne Cooke has been Curator at Dia Art Foundation since 1991. She was co-curator of the 1991 Carnegie International, Artistic Director of the 1996 Sydney Biennale, and has curated exhibitions in numerous venues in North America, Europe, and elsewhere. She has taught and lectured widely at schools and universities throughout the United States and Europe. From 1979 to 1989 she was a Lecturer in the History of Art Department at University College, London. In addition to teaching at Columbia University in the Graduate Fine Arts Department, she is currently a Visiting Critic at Yale University and is on the faculty for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. Among her numerous publications are recent essays on the works of Rodney Graham, Jorge Pardo, Diana Thater, and Agnes Martin. She was the recipient of the 2006 Award for Curatorial Excellence from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, the Independent Curators International Agnes Gund Curatorial Award in 2000, and four awards from the International Association of Art Critics, for exhibitions of Hanne Darboven (1996), Jessica Stockholder (1996), Juan Muñoz (1997) and Robert Irwin (1998). Born in Geelong, Australia, Ms. Cooke received a B.A. from Melbourne University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Courtauld Institute, London University.

A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition. Richard Serra: Forty Years offers a detailed visual presentation and documentation of his entire career, from his early experiments with materials like rubber, neon, and lead to the environmentally scaled steel works of recent years, including three monumental new sculptures created for this exhibition. The book also contains essays on the artist’s work by Benjamin Buchloh, Lynne Cooke, and John Rajchman, and an interview with Serra by Kynaston McShine, the Museum’s Chief Curator at Large. The book is distributed to the trade through Distributed Art Publishers (D.A.P.) in the United States and Canada and through Thames & Hudson outside North America. It will be available in June 2007 at MoMA Stores and online at www.momastore.org. Paperback: 10.5 x 10 inches; 420 pages; 381 tritone illustrations. $75.

The exhibition is made possible with the major support of LVMH / Moët Hennessy. Louis Vuitton

The Museum of Modern Art - MoMa
11 West 53 Street - New York

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