Sequence

Richard Serra, the illustrious sculptor who last year had a 40-year retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, must be as stoic as his massive endeavors. I've always wanted to meet him; I've let myself drown in the sensitivity behind the meaning of his pieces and have wanted to personally thank him for his creations. For now, I must enjoy his words in wonderful interviews like the one I recently saw from London's Guardian. I must have gone to visit those sculptures of his on 54th Street over 50 times in 2007. Serra, born in California, is filed under Post-Minimalist Modernism. The retrospective included early works of his from the 60s, in rubber and lead, as well as his famed large-steel plates: two from the 90s displayed in MoMA's outdoor sculpture garden, and three new pieces. The exhibit was in the works back when the museum's expansion was still being planned (the current site opened in 2004.) Consideration had to be given in order to build floors and galleries structurally stable enough to hold these mega-ton pieces that took over three floors of the enlarged museum.



The most impressive of those three new pieces, Sequence, has been permanently loaned by the artist to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. After a recent pilgrimage to the new Broad Gallery at LACMA, I can now say I've been able to explore and walk through the piece in the only two locations it will ever live. The Broad Gallery, LACMA's latest addition which boasts a phenomenal collection that is an encyclopedia of contemporary art which rivals that of MoMA's in star-power greatness, was designed by another admired great of mine, the architect Renzo Piano whose work I've mentioned both here and here.

His massive steel structures, which thrust themselves in astonishing contoured angles, morph spaces with their 20-foot steel curved plates pieced together like a giant's simple puzzle. From above, they are striking mazes. But the real adventures lie from the ground, looking at and walking through the sculptures that don't just stand there but jet out to surprising degrees - a pure demonstration and perception of physical space and weight.

Richard Serra studied in Berkeley before moving on to Yale where he studied with Josef Albers. The more I take in the breath of contemporary art and music stemming from this country over the last 50 years, the more I realize that California is the place that has bred the most originality. It's never been an arts capital but certainly has given us enough to consider it a mecca for expression.