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.

Nancy Spector

Purchased from Galerie Ricke, Cologne, by Panza in 1969; on long-term loan to Kunstmuseum Basel until 1990; purchased by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1991.

Solo
Galerie Ricke, Cologne, October 1968.

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 Benjamin H. D. Buchloh and interview by Lizzie Borden; pp. 5–6 (illus.), 210, 240 (cat. no. 7).

Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Richard Serra, October 26, 1983–January 2, 1984. Catalogue with essays by Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss and interview by Alfred Pacquement, pp. 50 (illus.), 104 (cat. no. 3).

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. 69 (illus., cat. no. 3), 97. In Spanish and English.

Group
Kunsthalle Bern, Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form. Works—Concepts—Processes—Situations—Information, March 22–April 27, 1969. Traveled to Institute of Contemporary Art, London, August 28–September 27, 1969. The work appeared in Bern only. Catalogue, Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form. Works—Concepts—Processes—Situations—Information/Live in Your Head: Wenn Attitüden Form werden. Werke—Konzepte—Vorgänge—Situationen—Information/Live in Your Head: Quand les attitudes deviennent forme. Oeuvres—concepts—processus—situations—information/Live in Your Head: Quando attitudini diventano forma. Opere—concetti—processi—situazioni—informazione, unpag. text.

Stadthalle Düsseldorf and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (organized by Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kunstmuseum, and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf), Das Bild einer Geschichte 1956/1976: Die Sammlung Panza di Biumo. Die Geschichte eines Bildes: Action painting, Newdada, Pop art [more], Minimal Art, Conceptual, Environmental Art, September 19–October 12, 1980. Traveled to Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Minimal + Conceptual art [more] aus der Sammlung Panza, November 9, 1980–June 28, 1981. The work appeared in Basel only. German catalogue by Germano Celant (Milan: Electa International, 1980): p. 204 (illus). Swiss edition by Franz Meyer: pp. 52 (cat. no. 43), 53 (illus.).

Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Modern and Contemporary: Painting and Sculpture from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, September 9–December 9, 1990 (Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, organizer). Catalogue (Venice: Peggy Guggenheim Collection, 1990), unpag. (illus.).

Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Amerikanische Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert: Malerei und Plastik 1913–1993, May 8–July 25, 1993. Traveled to Royal Academy of Arts and Saatchi Gallery, London, American Art in the Twentieth Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993, September 16–December 12, 1993. Catalogue (Munich: Prestel Verlag; London: Royal Academy of Arts; Berlin: Zeitgeist-Gesellschaft, 1993) with texts by Brooks Adams, David Anfam, Richard Armstrong, John Beardsley, Neal Benezra, Arthur C. Danto, Abraham A. Davidson, Wolfgang Max Faust, Christos M. Joachimides, Mary Emma Harris, Thomas Kellein, Donald Kuspit, Mary Lublin, Karal Ann Marling, Barbara Moore, Francis V. O’Connor, Achille Bonito Oliva, Stephen Polcari, Carter Ratcliff, Norman Rosenthal, Irving Sandler, Wieland Schmied, Peter Selz, Gail Stavitsky, and Douglas Tallack; p. 429, cat. no. 218 (illus.). English edition (Munich: Prestel Verlag, 1993): p. 403, cat. no. 218 (illus.).

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Tradition of the New: Postwar Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Collection, May 20–September 11, 1994.

Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Sala BBK, and Sala de Exposiciones Rekalde, Bilbao (organized by Guggenheim Museum, New York), Berriaren Tradizioa: Guggenheim Bildumako Maisu-Lanak 1945–1990/La tradición de lo nuevo: Obras maestras de la colección Guggenheim 1945–1990, May 10–July 15, 1995. Catalogue in Basque and Spanish, pp. 126 (cat. no. 34), 127 (illus.), 179–80.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline, February 9–May 12, 1996. Catalogue by Mark Rosenthal, pp. 210, 214–15 (illus.).

American Art in the Twentieth Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993 (exh. cat., Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin). Munich: Prestel Verlag, 1993. Texts by Brooks Adams, David Anfam, Richard Armstrong, John Beardsley, Neal Benezra, Arthur C. Danto, Abraham A. Davidson, Wolfgang Max Faust, Christos M. Joachimides, Mary Emma Harris, Thomas Kellein, Donald Kuspit, Mary Lublin, Karal Ann Marling, Barbara Moore, Francis V. O’Connor, Achille Bonito Oliva, Stephen Polcari, Carter Ratcliff, Norman Rosenthal, Irving Sandler, Wieland Schmied, Peter Selz, Gail Stavitsky, and Douglas Tallack; fig. 218

Ammann, Jean-Christophe. “Schweizer Brief.” Art International (Lugano) 13, no. 5 (May 20, 1969), p. 48 (illus.).

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. 66 (fig. 30 shows the work with eleven parts).

Armstrong, Tom, et al. Two Hundred Years of American Sculpture (exh. cat.). New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1976, p. 204 (illus., fig. 300).

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; pp. 282–83 (illus.).

Auping, Michael. Abstract Expressionism: The Critical Developments. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987, p. 152.

Galloway, David. “Report from Italy: Count Panza Divests.” Art in America (New York) 72, no. 11 (December 1984), p. 16 (illus. shows the work in Varese).

Güse, Ernst-Gerhard, ed. Richard Serra. Texts by Yve-Alain Bois, Douglas Crimp, Güse, Serra, and Armin Zweite. New York: Rizzoli, 1988, plate 3 (illus. shows the work with eleven parts), p. 341 (cat. no. 3).

Knight, Christopher. Art of the Sixties and Seventies, pp. 89 (plate 44 shows the work at Museum für Gegenwartskunst, 1980–81; plate 45 shows it in Serra’s New York studio, 1967), 269. Revised and expanded English edition: pp. 97 (plates 55, 56), 311. French edition: pp. 89 (plates 44, 45), 269. Italian edition: pp. 89 (plates 44, 45), 269. Revised and expanded Italian edition: pp. 97 (plate 55, 56), 311.

Krauss, Rosalind E. Richard Serra: Sculpture (exh. cat.). Ed. Laura Rosenstock. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1986. Introduction by Rosenstock and essay by Douglas Crimp; p. 65 (illus.).

Neon-Kunst: Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra, Keith Sonnier (exh. cat.). Mönchengladbach, West Germany: Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, 1987. Texts by Dierk Stemmler and Marcia Tucker; pp. 6, 10. In German and English.

Panza di Biumo, Giuseppe. “Environmental Art Museum.” Trans. Eve Rockert. In Italian and English. Data (Milan) 4, no. 12 (summer 1974), p. 30 (illus.).

Pincus-Witten, Robert. “Richard Serra: Slow Information.” Artforum (New York) 8, no. 1 (September 1969), p. 37 (illus.).

Richard Serra (exh. cat.). Rio de Janeiro: Centro Cultural Hélio Oiticica, 1997, p. 96 (illus.).

Schwander, Martin, ed. Richard Serra: Intersection, Basel. Düsseldorf: Richter Verlag, 1996. Texts by Gottfried Boehm, Martha Buskirk, Eva Keller, Schwander, and Serra; pp. 13, 14, 15 (illus. shows the work at Kunsthalle Bern, 1969), 16, 17, 24, 25 (illus. shows the work at Museum für Gegenwartskunst, 1980–81), 173.

Serra, Richard. Writings, Interviews. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994, pp. 110 (illus.), 113, 114.

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. 138, 139 (illus.), 140.

Spector, Nancy, ed. Guggenheim Museum Collection: A to Z. New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1992, 2d ed., 2001, pp. 242, 243 (illus.).