One of the most significant artists of his generation, Richard Serra (1938–2024) has produced large-scale, site-specific sculptures for architectural, urban, and landscape settings spanning the globe, from Iceland to New Zealand. Born in San Francisco, Serra lived and worked in New York and on the North Fork of Long Island. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, before transferring to the University of California, Santa Barbara, graduating with a BA in English literature; he then studied painting at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, completing both a BFA and MFA. He began showing with Leo Castelli in 1968, and his first solo exhibition in New York was held at the Leo Castelli Warehouse the following year. His first solo museum exhibition was held at the Pasadena Art Museum, California, in 1970. Serra’s sculptures and drawings have been celebrated with two retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, twenty years apart: Richard Serra/Sculpture (1986) and Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years (2007). He had solo exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1977–78); Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany (1978); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany (1978); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (1980, 2014, and 2017); Centre Pompidou, Paris (1983–84); Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany (1985); Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk, Denmark (1986); Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster, Germany (1987); Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (1987); Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (1988); Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands (1990); Kunsthaus Zürich (1990); CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France (1990); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1992); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany (1992); Dia Center for the Arts, New York (1997); Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro (1997–98); Trajan’s Market, Rome (1999–2000); Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis (2003); and Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples, Italy (2004). In 2005 The Matter of Time (1994–2005), a series of eight large-scale works, was installed permanently at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain. For Monumenta 2008, the major site-specific installation Promenade was shown at the Grand Palais, Paris. Three years later the large-scale, site-specific sculpture 7 was permanently installed opposite the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. A major traveling retrospective dedicated to Serra’s drawings was presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Menil Collection, Houston (the organizing venue), from 2011 to 2012. In 2014 the Qatar Museums Authority presented a two-venue retrospective survey of Serra’s work, and East-West/West-East (2014) was permanently installed in the Brouq Nature Reserve, Zekreet, Qatar. In 2017 the Museum Wiesbaden, Germany, presented Richard Serra: Props, Films, Early Works; an overview of Serra’s work in film and video was shown at the Kunstmuseum Basel; and recent drawings were featured at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Serra participated in numerous major international exhibitions, including Documenta (1972, 1977, 1982, and 1987), and the Biennale di Venezia (1980, 1984, 2001, and 2013), and his work was included in many Whitney Annuals and Biennials (1968, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1995, and 2006). He is the recipient of the Biennale di Venezia’s Leone d’Oro for lifetime achievement (2001); Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste, Federal Republic of Germany (2002); Orden de las Artes y las Letras de España, Spain (2008); President’s Medal, Architectural League of New York (2014); Chevalier de l’Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur, Republic of France (2015); and J. Paul Getty Medal (2018).

Public Collections

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Centre Cultural Fundació La Caixa, Barcelona
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
Denver Art Museum, Denver
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Dia Art Foundation, New York
Dia: Beacon, Beacon
Glenstone Museum, Potomac
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington
Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencia
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki
Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen
Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Krefeld
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Museo Guggenheim de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Bilbao
Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona
Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montreal
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Museum Folkwang, Essen
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego
Museum of Contemporary Art Oslo, Oslo
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, Shiga
Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna
Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo
National Gallery of Art, Washington
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Osaka City Museum of Modern Art, Osaka
Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis
Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
Serralves Foundation, Porto
Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart
Städel Museum, Frankfurt
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Storm King Art Center, Mountainville
Tate, London
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis