Since returning to San Francisco I had it on my list to go see the Richard Serra at the Gap Headquarters building on the Embarcadero. But first the new Richard Serra at the new UCSF medical campus was unveiled. Quietly. Last time, it seems, there was an uproar about a Richard Serra being installed in a public space in San Francisco, so this time they just did it without a lot of fan fare. (Who are these people complaining?) Now there's Richard Serra on TV (with Charlie Rose last night), Richard Serra at MoMA (see above, by Fred Conrad for NYTimes).
Richard Serra Richard Serra Richard Serra. Well, if I were Matthew Barney I'd have Richard Serra in my movie too.
Richard Serra takes the cake.
Last night when Charlie Rose tried to impress as an insightful instigator of the profound, Richard Serra held his ground and firmly impressed. The man is articulate and sure, and for the first time I really saw how a person's work is an emmanation out of their character. This man is as large and profound as his works. He is virtuous.
"Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" (Twelfth Night)
There's virtue and ... virtue. Morality (no, I don't mean that) and power (yes, that) and quality. Virtue is the Te of the Tao (as in Tao Te Ching which means The Book (Ching) of the Way (Tao) and its Virtue (Te).) Virtue is quality - and character. The more one is centered and grounded in the Tao, in the natural particular way of oneself, the more sure and clear ones virtue (essence) appears. Serra's work is a tangible material manifestation of the quality of the man. Serra's work is powerful.
Serra in San Francisco
This piece is tall. Two tall flat steel panels situated in a quad by a dormatory in the flat campus by the bay. The panels are slightly, whimsically tilted. They are massive. Standing next to them they are like redwoods. Up. And then there is that tilt. Tilt. 2 -3 inches thick. Stately. Tall. Very simple, and surprizing how two panels so can cut and shape the air that is in that vast space above the ground between big buildings. Amazing they don't fall over. Tilt and awe.
Charlie Brown is the piece inside the Gap Headquarters. (When it was being built, Charles Schultz died, so Serra named it after his character. Art trivia.) Four tall panels gently folded inward at the top leaning shoulder to shoulder creating a hollow space that sound travels up into an extended reverb out the top. (Yes, look, it's true: steel can be gently folded.) It stands inside a courtyard four stories high. Cozy.
(I took the first pic just before the guard ran over and told me No Photos! So I nabbed the top-down pic from www.scultura-italiana.com.)
Serra in Berlin
While I'm at it I might as well reminisce about finding a lonely Serra in Berlin - beside the golden Berliner Philharmonie, but now situated in a driveway - so it's aptly named Berlin Junction but looks somehow like a traffic obstruction. Two panels laid horizontally and curving into one another, the ends sweeping into the sky and echoing the lines of the concert hall.
(Pic from www.scultura-italiana.com.)
I like Richard Serras. If I were in NYC now, I'd go see the retrospective. Go rub up against a big piece of steel. Works for me.
