Richard Serra and the Torqued Ellipses

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When thinking about sculpture, certain sculptures or artists may come into mind. Almost all of us have a preconceived notion of what sculpture is and should be. When discussing sculpture we may automatically think about Michelangelo’s David, or the Venus de Milo. These examples of sculpture represent very specific points in the Classical and Renaissance periods of the past. But what we may not think about is the notion that sculpture can be created solely for the purpose of conveying the feeling of movement through space and volume. Enter Richard Serra, a sculptor and artist emerging from the post-Abstract Expressionist period. Sculpting often very massive site-specific pieces, Richard Serra has been in the forefront of modern abstract sculpture since the late 1960’s. Beginning in the 1990’s, inspired by Francesco Borromini’s San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (Church of Saint Charles at the Four Fountains) in Rome, he began to experiment with the idea of torqued ellipses. He began by making small wood ellipses held together at an angle by a dowel. Using this model he then made a template out of lead. After experimenting with the angles of the ellipses in lead he moved to a computer based CATIA (Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application) program so he can evaluate the correct size and angles of the steel plates in full scale. On a recent trip to the museum Dia Beacon in Beacon New York, I had a chance to encounter Richard Serra’s epic steel works that are known as Torqued Ellipses. When walking up to either of the three 20 ton large-scale steel sculptures by Richard Serra known as Torqued Ellipses, it is very hard not to feel a little frightened. After getting a little closer, and following the wonderful curves these pieces offer, I began to get a sense of infiniteness, wondering if they will ever end. The passage to the inner centers is like

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