Richard Serra created Belts—tangled clusters of vulcanized rubber strips illuminated by an erratic curl of neon tubing—shortly after returning from a year of study in Italy, where he undoubtedly witnessed the very begin-nings of Arte Povera [more]. Like the artists who would come to be associated with that movement, Serra employed nontraditional materials in his sculpture, in this case belts suspended from hooks on the wall. The piece’s anthropomorphic quality—the belts suggest limp figures or twisted harnesses—indicates that Serra was also familiar with contemporaneous sculptural reflections on the human body made by Eva Hesse and Bruce Nauman. Serra’s style would change radically in the ensuing years, but his sensitivity to the body, its capacity for action, and its crucial role in perception has remained a constant in the work.

Serra envisions sculpture as the physical manifestation of transitive verbs. In 1967 and 1968 he compiled a list of infinitives that served as catalysts for subsequent work: “to hurl” suggested the hurling of molten lead into crevices between wall and floor; “to roll” led to the rolling of the material into dense, metal logs. While the process of fabricating these pieces was, in essence, their very subject, Serra eventually deemed them too picturesque and he shifted strategies once again. Continuing his employment of lead, Serra utilized another transitive verb: “to prop.” Right Angle Prop is one of numerous lead constructions, the assemblage of which is dependent on leaning elements. Dispensing with carving and welding—conventional methods of delineating volume and securing mass—Serra created precarious sculptures that stand by virtue of equilibrium and gravity. Such pieces exist in a constant state of tension, ever revealing the process of their making, ever threatening to tilt off balance. Following the perilous choreography of propping, Serra engaged the verb “to cut” in a series of large-scale steel sculptures, variations of which he is still producing. Strike is essentially one tall, thin steel slice that, wedged into a corner, bisects the room and demands viewing from both sides. As one walks around the front of the piece, perception continually shifts: plane gives way to edge to plane again. This cut-steel sculpture is itself an implement for cutting space and, in this way, serves as an analogue for the sculptor himself, who stimulates vision by giving material form to the transitive verb.

Purchased from Leo Castelli, New York, by Panza in 1972; purchased by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1991.

Solo
Kunsthalle, Tübingen, Richard Serra, Arbeiten 66–77, March 8–April 2, 1978; Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, April 22–May 21, 1978. Catalogue in German and English edited by Götz Adriani, Hans Albert Peters, and Clara Weyergraf, with essays by Weyergraf, Max Imdahl, and B. H. D. Buchloh and interview by Lizzie Borden; pp. 45 (illus.), 249 (cat. no. 110).

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Richard Serra, January 28–March 23, 1992. Catalogue with essays by Serra, Yve-Alain Bois, and Stefan Germer; pp. 75 (illus., cat. no. 6), 98. In Spanish and English.

Tate Gallery, London, Richard Serra: Weight and Measure 1992, September 30, 1992–January 15, 1993. Catalogue (Düsseldorf: Richter Verlag, 1992), pp. 33 (illus.), 92.

Group
Joe Lo Giudice Gallery, New York, November 28, 1971–January 29, 1972.

Leo Castelli, New York, Judd/Serra, May 20–June 10, 1972.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The First Show: Painting and Sculpture from Eight Collections 1940–1980, November 23, 1983–February 19, 1984. Catalogue edited by Julia Brown and Bridget Johnson (Los Angeles: The Museum of Contemporary Art in association with The Arts Publisher, New York, 1983) with essays by Pontus Hulten and Susan C. Larsen; pp. 238 (illus.; published as Strike), 289.

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Pertzepzio Aldakorrak: Guggenheim Museoaren Panza Bilduma; Percepciones en Transformación: La Colección Panza del Museo Guggenheim, October 9, 2000–January 28, 2001.

Armstrong, Richard, and Richard Marshall, eds. The New Sculpture 1965–75: Between Geometry and Gesture (exh. cat.). New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1990. Essays by Armstrong, John G. Hanhardt, and Robert Pincus-Witten; p. 160 (fig. 123).

Art of This Century: The Guggenheim Museum and Its Collection. New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1993, 2d ed. 1997. Essays by Thomas Krens, Andrea Feeser, Lisa Dennison, Michael Govan, Jennifer Blessing, Diane Waldman, Nancy Spector, Julia Brown, and Clare Bell; p. 244 (illus.).

Celant, Germano. Das Bild einer Geschichte 1956/1976, p. 206 (two illus.).

Güse, Ernst-Gerhard, ed. Richard Serra. Texts by Yve-Alain Bois, Douglas Crimp, Güse, Serra, and Armin Zweite. New York: Rizzoli, 1988, pp. 12 (illus., fig. 2), 28 (illus., fig. 2), 29, plate 37 (illus.), 342 (cat. no. 37).

Janssen, Hans, ed. Richard Serra: Drawings/Zeichnungen 1969–1990. Catalogue Raisonné/Werkverzeichnis. Bern: Benteli Verlag, [1990], pp. 8, 9 (illus.), 13, 24, 37.

Richard Serra: Drawings 1969–1990, Catalogue Raisonné/Richard Serra: Zeichnungen 1969–1990, Werkverzeichnis.

Knight, Christopher. Art of the Sixties and Seventies, pp. 88 (plate 42), 269. Revised and expanded English edition: pp. 99 (plate 60), 311. French edition: pp. 88 (plate 42), 269. Italian edition: pp. 88 (plate 42), 269. Revised and expanded Italian edition: pp. 99 (plate 60), 311.

Krauss, Rosalind E. “Richard Serra: Sculpture Redrawn.” Artforum (New York) 10, no. 9 (May 1972), p. 43.

———. Richard Serra: Sculpture (exh. cat.). Ed. Laura Rosenstock. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1986. Introduction by Rosenstock and essay by Douglas Crimp; pp. 11, 25–27, 31, 44 (illus. shows the work at Joe Lo Giudice Gallery, 1971–72), 45, 91 (illus., fig. 52).

Kurtz, Bruce. “Documenta 5: A Critical Preview.” Arts Magazine (New York) 46, no. 8 (summer 1972), p. 41 (illus.).

Pincus-Witten, Robert. “Review of Group Exhibition at Joe Lo Giudice Gallery, New York.” Artforum (New York) 10, no. 5 (January 1972), pp. 80 (illus.), 81–83.

Richard Serra (exh. cat.). Paris: Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1983. Essays by Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss and interview by Alfred Pacquement; p. 75 (illus.).

Richard Serra (exh. cat.). Rio de Janeiro: Centro Cultural Hélio Oiticica, 1997, p. 9 (illus. shows the work at Joe Lo Giudice Gallery, 1971–72).

Richard Serra: Props (exh. cat.). Duisburg: Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum; Düsseldorf: Richter Verlag, 1994. Essays by Manfred Schneckenburger, Serra, and Rosalind Krauss; pp. 58, 64, 66, 82, 182 (illus.), 223 (cat. no. 106). In German and English.

Richard Serra: Tekeningen/Drawings 1971–1977. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1977. Interview by Lizzie Borden, unpag. (fig. 10).

Schwander, Martin, ed. Richard Serra: Intersection, Basel. Düsseldorf: Richter Verlag, 1996. Texts by Gottfried Boehm, Martha Buskirk, Eva Keller, Schwander, and Serra; pp. 54, 55 (illus. shows the work at Joe Lo Giudice Gallery, 1971–72), 175 (no. 29).

Serra, Richard, and Clara Weyergraf. Richard Serra: Interviews, Etc. 1970–1980. Yonkers, New York: The Hudson River Museum, 1980. Interviews by Liza Bear, Friedrich Tija Bach, Lizzie Borden, Annette Michelson, Bernard Lamarche-Vadel, and Douglas Crimp and texts by Serra; pp. 78, 80 (illus.), 122–23 (two illus. show the installation of Strike with pulley, scaffolding, and workers), 187 (illus.).

Spector, Nancy, ed. Guggenheim Museum Collection: A to Z. New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1992, 2d ed. 2001.