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This work is a still from Hand Catching Lead, Richard Serra’s first feature film from 1968. The film shows a single shot of Serra’s hand repeatedly opening and closing, trying to catch chunks of lead dropping from above.
Serra (b. 1939, San Francisco, CA) is perhaps best known for his site-specific sculptures, has created works that span the mediums, including drawing and video, and that cross the continents from America to Asia. The single most important characteristic of his art is its pure physicality; the presence of his work, either because of materials or the site, is always insistent and, at times, unsettling. Frequently using industrial materials, Serra’s sculptures evoke a sense of rawness while their towering heights and simple lines forcefully transgress into the viewer’s space. In his series Tilted Arcs (1996-1999) monumental sheets of steel curve through public spaces, creating private enclaves even as these interventions shatter prior relationships with said spaces.
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Art Institute of Chicago, IL
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
