In a recent trip to the Dia:Beacon the artist Richard Serra caught my attention. This was the second time I had seen his work in person and I was as impressed by his work this time as much the previous experience. Serra was born in San Francisco in 1939, and went on to study art at Yale University and graduated with a M.F.A. in 1964. He traveled Europe for a couple years before settling down to live and work in New York City. His torqued ellipse pieces are seen at the Dia. To create these pieces he experimented by playing around with two ellipses attached by a rod at different angles. When he had created the small-scale models of the projects he then had to search for a factory that could create the large scale sculptures. He found a factory that was able to an managed to create these wonderful sculptures that capture the viewer's attention.


In the 1960s Serra had studied contemporary dancers such as Yvonne Rainer and was inspired to use the idea of movement of the body in space. He wanted to concentrate on the body moving through space in a physical way related to the space not completely relying on visual navigation through the space. The sculptures he created capture this idea completely. When you walk around the pieces you feel the pull and tug of space. As you walk through them you are uncertain of where exactly you are and how the shape works exactly. It is an amazing sensation.