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Lot Essay
'It is obvious - from Mantegna's Christ to Cézanne's apples - that shapes can imply weight, mass, and volume. A square carries more weight - gravitationally - than a rectangle; a trapezoid, more than a diamond. A triangle is a light, very quick shapeThe black shapes, in functioning as weights in relation to a given architectural volume, create spaces and places within this volume and also create a disjunctive experience of the architecture'
(R. Serra, quoted in Writings/Interviews, Chicago 1994, p. 179).
Exploring the formal and perceptual relationship between artwork and viewer, Left Corner Square to the Corner (five sided) is a striking example of Richard Serra's monumental installation drawings. Expanding the definition of modern drawing, Serra's drawings proffer a radical approach to the medium that is as groundbreaking as his internationally acclaimed sculpture. The crucial role that drawing has played over the course of his distinguished career was recently recognised in a retrospective devoted entirely to his drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011, later traveling to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Menil Collection, Houston in 2012.
A dense, black pentagon created by the meticulous layering of oil paint-stick on unstretched linen, Left Corner Square to the Corner (five sided) acts as an interface between the architectural space and the viewer, manipulating our sense of volume, material and gravity to an almost visceral extent. Using deceptively simple elements, Serra has reduced drawing to its most essential components and activated the surrounding space, integrating the architectural environment into the work itself. Attached directly to a contrasting white wall, the work deliberately locates a specific space within the room that is different from its original architectural intention.
Left Corner Square to the Corner (five sided) has no metaphorical or representational subtext. Involving the viewer directly with the specific three-dimensionality of the site, it projects a sense of volume that is entirely distinct from the illusionary space that we might traditionally expect from drawing. It emphasises the fact that, 'Shapes themselves refer to their internal masses' (R. Serra, quoted in Writings/Interviews, Chicago 1994, p. 55). As with Serra's physically impressive sculptures, this drawing is preoccupied with structuring, even redefining, its given site and context. As Serra has observed, 'It is obvious - from Mantegna's Christ to Cezanne's apples - that shapes can imply weight, mass, and volume. A square carries more weight - gravitationally - than a rectangle; a trapezoid, more than a diamond. A triangle is a light, very quick shapeThe black shapes, in functioning as weights in relation to a given architectural volume, create spaces and places within this volume and also create a disjunctive experience of the architecture.' (R. Serra, quoted in Writings/Interviews, Chicago 1994, p. 179).
(R. Serra, quoted in Writings/Interviews, Chicago 1994, p. 179).
Exploring the formal and perceptual relationship between artwork and viewer, Left Corner Square to the Corner (five sided) is a striking example of Richard Serra's monumental installation drawings. Expanding the definition of modern drawing, Serra's drawings proffer a radical approach to the medium that is as groundbreaking as his internationally acclaimed sculpture. The crucial role that drawing has played over the course of his distinguished career was recently recognised in a retrospective devoted entirely to his drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011, later traveling to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Menil Collection, Houston in 2012.
A dense, black pentagon created by the meticulous layering of oil paint-stick on unstretched linen, Left Corner Square to the Corner (five sided) acts as an interface between the architectural space and the viewer, manipulating our sense of volume, material and gravity to an almost visceral extent. Using deceptively simple elements, Serra has reduced drawing to its most essential components and activated the surrounding space, integrating the architectural environment into the work itself. Attached directly to a contrasting white wall, the work deliberately locates a specific space within the room that is different from its original architectural intention.
Left Corner Square to the Corner (five sided) has no metaphorical or representational subtext. Involving the viewer directly with the specific three-dimensionality of the site, it projects a sense of volume that is entirely distinct from the illusionary space that we might traditionally expect from drawing. It emphasises the fact that, 'Shapes themselves refer to their internal masses' (R. Serra, quoted in Writings/Interviews, Chicago 1994, p. 55). As with Serra's physically impressive sculptures, this drawing is preoccupied with structuring, even redefining, its given site and context. As Serra has observed, 'It is obvious - from Mantegna's Christ to Cezanne's apples - that shapes can imply weight, mass, and volume. A square carries more weight - gravitationally - than a rectangle; a trapezoid, more than a diamond. A triangle is a light, very quick shapeThe black shapes, in functioning as weights in relation to a given architectural volume, create spaces and places within this volume and also create a disjunctive experience of the architecture.' (R. Serra, quoted in Writings/Interviews, Chicago 1994, p. 179).