By Susan Haigh and Trân Nguyễn -
The Associated Press
The famous American artist and sculptor Richard Serra, known for turning curved walls of rusted steel and other malleable materials into large works of outdoor art that have been distributed around the world, died this Tuesday at his home in Long Island, New York. at 85 years old.
Considered
one of the most prominent sculptors of his generation
, Serra, who was born in San Francisco, studied painting at Yale University, but turned to sculpture in the 1960s, inspired by his travels to Europe.
The artist Richard Serra, in New York, on April 22, 2014.Getty Images
His death was confirmed Tuesday night by his attorney, John Silberman, whose law firm is based in New York.
He added that the cause of death was pneumonia.
[Iconic places in the world turn off their lights for an hour around the planet]
Known to his colleagues as the
Iron Poet
, Serra became world famous for his large-scale steel structures, such as monumental arches, spirals, and ellipses.
He was closely linked to the minimalist movement of the 1970s.
Serra's work began to attract attention in 1981, when he installed a curved raw steel wall 36.5 meters long and 3.6 meters high that divides New York's Federal Plaza.
The sculpture, called
Tilted Arc
, generated a swift reaction and a fierce demand for it to be removed.
The sculpture was later dismantled, but Serra's popularity in the New York art scene
had been cemented
.
[A thunderstorm leaves impressive rainbows in the sky over San Francisco]
In 2005, eight major works by Serra were installed in the Guggenheim Museum in Spain.
Carmen Jiménez, organizer of the exhibition, declared that Serra was “without a doubt the most important living sculptor.”
Visitors to the work The Matter of Time, by artist Richard Serra, at the Guggenheim Museum, in Bilbao, Spain, on October 18, 2022.Getty Images
Before turning to sculpture, Serra worked in steel foundries to help finance his education at the Berkeley and Santa Barbara campuses of the University of California.
He later studied at Yale, where he graduated in 1964.