Richard Serra, master of large-scale sculpture, dies aged 85

American artist Richard Serra, whose monumental abstract sculptures transformed museums, public spaces and even entire landscapes, has died aged 85.

Artist Richard Serra, whose monumental abstract sculptures transformed museums, public spaces and even entire landscapes, has died aged 85. The American sculptor died from pneumonia at his home in New York on Tuesday, his lawyer John Silberman told the New York Times. Across his six-decade career, Serra established himself as one of the most celebrated artists in postwar America. Working primarily with steel — often twisted into evocative shapes and oxidized to achieve a distinctive deep orange palette — Serra was known for large-scale sculptures designed not only to be observed but to be explored, experienced and felt. His site-specific creations, whether carved into a grassy field or permanently installed in the Guggenheim Museum’s outpost in Bilbao, also invited viewers to engage with their surroundings in new ways. A tribute posted to the Guggenheim’s Instagram account on Tuesday said that Serra’s work “reshaped our perceptions of space and form and redefined the connection between viewer and artwork.” The statement added: “Beyond the sheer scale and grandeur of his creations, Serra’s artistic vision was rooted in a deep understanding of the relationship between art, architecture, and the environment.” Born in San Francisco, California in 1938, Serra was exposed to his signature material early in life: The son of a shipyard pipe fitter, he worked at steel mills to support his studies at the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara. In the early 1960s, Serra studied painting at Yale and befriended many of the medium’s modern greats, including Philip Guston and Robert Rauschenberg, though he seemed to yearn for a third dimension and materials beyond paint or canvas.