The Last Sculptures (For Richard Serra)

Abstract

Abstract In 2022, Richard Serra installed a massive forged steel column that stood centered and alone in the gallery and whose surface was gouged in a way that resembled bite marks or scars. The gallerist David Zwirner conveyed that the artist had said that this sculpture was his last. Hal Foster's volume of long form interviews with Serra, Conversations about Sculpture (Yale, 2018) serves as a key source as the author explores: What does it mean to bring a career to a close? And what is the relationship between sculpture and death? The essay defines the features of Serra's late style, which played out in a series of forged sculptures ranging from Grief and Reason (for Walter) (2013) to the artist's last work, 2022. These works encompass as set of mnemonic gestures—invocations of the past—that include homages to people of formative intellectual or personal significance; reference to or reengagement with works, propositions, or modes of making from earlier in the artist's career; and the primordial forms and functions of sculpture itself. And in both their literal and affective weight, they invite thoughts of mortality.