Unlike most of Serra's works, To Whom It May Concern was made to be shown indoors. The solid black walls make an interesting contrast with the scrubbed white walls and pearl colored carpet. I wonder what went through the heads of the patrons walking around those walls.
Sunday, April 27, 2025
Que Serra
Partly on someone's suggestion and partly out of my own instinct, I've been researching more on the late sculptor Richard Serra. He worked in metal for almost all his works, often at an overpowering scale. He claimed to be more influenced by architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe than other sculptors. As it happens I like Mies van der Rohe, although not his skyscrapers so much.
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I can accept his sculptures set in landscapes - like the one called A shift in the Landscape, maybe because it just looks like part of a natural landscape. Then I saw the housing development being built right next door.. That part I really disliked but modern McMansion subdivisions around Toronto always irritated me. Serra's work is a little difficult for me to make any sense of in many cases because I really don't understand his intentions. I saw pictures of Tilted Arc in situ in Foley Federal Plaza in NYC and couldn't help but agree with the people who insisted it be removed as a dangerous obstruction.
https://youtu.be/L8rjwRQuq14?si=_MJ2rm3yprrosA5E
Once again I have to say I prefer sculpture made in classical styles. The closest I ever came to admiring the work of a modern sculptor was in seeing Henry Moore's monumental bronzes on display in Battersea Park in 1966. Of course I got to sit in Sean Connery's souped up Aston Martin that morning too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moore
I'm mainly interested in Serra as an example of how an artist thinks. Sculptors generally make things that look like things, or people or animals. Brancusi's sculptures generally did, although they were very stylized. Serra's pieces don't look like anything except for maybe walls, but that doesn't count because they basically are walls. So he's not really depicting in that sense. But he was doing something, and an inner sense of purpose made him keep doing it.
I enjoy looking at Henry Moore's works. The simplified faces combined with the very detailed bodies create an interesting effect. I also like his Wall Relief No. 1. The Aston Martin is a work of art in its own way, although I'm pretty sure Connery was trying to get away from Bond at that time.
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