Questions & Answers
Our trusted network of 1stDibs sellers answer common questions
What is the material that Richard Serra uses for his sculptures?
1 Answer

Richard Serra prefers to use steel for his sculptures. He narrows that down and reports that rolled Cor-Ten steel with an evenly rusted surface is his favorite medium. The artist has experimented in other mediums, including film, but is best noted for his large-scale steel structures. Shop a selection of Richard Serra pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.
1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
Related Questions
- What materials did Picasso use for his sculptures?1 Answer
- What materials did Auguste Rodin use for his sculptures?1 Answer
- What is bouclé material?1 Answer
- What is rattan material?1 Answer
- What is the material Corian?1 Answer
Shop for Richard Serra Art on 1stDibs
Torqued Spirals, Toruses and Spheres poster 2001, Hand Signed by Richard Serra
By Richard Serra
Located in New York, NY
Richard Serra
Torqued Spirals, Toruses and Spheres, 2001
Offset lithograph poster (Hand signed by Richard Serra)
Boldly signed in black marker on the front
28 × 20 inches
Unframed
This poster was published on the occasion of Serra's October 2001 exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery - one month after 9/11; The posters were sold for the benefit of the Twin Towers Fund and a certain quantity were hand signed by the artist.
Richard Serra Biography
Richard Serra was born in 1938 in San Francisco and lives and works in New York and the North Fork of Long Island. His first significant solo exhibition was held at the Leo Castelli Warehouse, New York, in 1969. His first solo museum exhibition took place at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1970. Serra has since participated in numerous international exhibitions, including documenta (1972, 1977, 1982, and 1987) in Kassel, Germany; the Venice Biennales of 1980, 1984, 2001, and 2013; and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual and Biennial exhibitions of 1968, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1995, and 2006.
Solo exhibitions of Serra’s sculptural work have been held at numerous public institutions worldwide, including, among others, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1980; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, 1984; Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, 1985; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1986; Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster, 1987; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, 1987; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1988; Kunsthaus Zürich, 1990; CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, 1990; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1992; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 1992; Dia Center for the Arts, New York, 1997; Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, 1997–1998; Trajan’s Market, Rome, 2000; Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis, 2003; and Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples, 2004.
In 2005, The Matter of Time, a series of eight large-scale works by Serra from 1994 to 2005, was installed permanently at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and in 2007, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, presented the retrospective Richard Serra Sculpture...
Category
Early 2000s Minimalist Abstract Prints
Materials
Permanent Marker, Lithograph, Offset
Richard Serra 'Videy Afangar #6' Limited Edition, Signed Etching Print
By Richard Serra
Located in San Rafael, CA
Richard Serra (born 1939)
Videy Afangar #6, from Videy Afangar Series, 1991
Etching on Hahnemühle paper
Signed and dated in pencil lower right
Edition 73/75 (there were also 20 artis...
Category
1990s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Etching
Double Level I
By Richard Serra
Located in Saint Louis, MO
Richard Serra
Double Level I, 2009
Etching
67 1/2 x 65 inches (171.5 x 165.1 cm)
Edition of 12/22
Signed
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Abstract Prints
Materials
Etching
East-West/West-East in Brouq Nature Reserve Qatar (Hand Signed by Richard Serra)
By Richard Serra
Located in New York, NY
Richard Serra
East-West/West-East: A Permanent in the Brouq Nature Reserve, Qatar (Hand Signed by Richard Serra), ca. 2014
Superb provenance: donated by the artist to a major contemporary art organization
Very rare offset lithograph (Hand Signed by Richard Serra)
Boldly signed on the front in black marker by Richard Serra
24 × 36 inches
Unframed
Sscarce when hand signed by Richard Serra. This work depicts Serra's iconic permanent installation in the desert of Brouq Qatar: East-West/West-East, which has become a famous landmark in Qatar since its installation in 2014. According to the Jewish-born Richard Serra, he had been visiting Qatar for about 12 years, during which he was introduced to the Chairperson of the Qatari Museums Authority and the sister of the new Emir, Sheikha Mayassa, by the architect of the Museum of Islamic Art, IM Pei. It was Sheikh Mayassathat who urged Serra to build a sculpture in the desert. The artist once said it was the most important thing he had ever done. In 2020 the Serra sculpture was famously vandalized.
This hand signed print has superb provenance as it was donated directly by the artist to a major charitable foundation and is accompanied by a documentation from a Foundation as well as a COA from the gallery.
Richard Serra biography:
Obsession is what it comes down to. It is difficult to think without obsession, and it is impossible to create something without a foundation that is rigorous, incontrovertible, and, in fact, to some degree repetitive. Repetition is the ritual of obsession. Repetition is a way to jumpstart the indecision of beginning. To persevere and to begin over and over again is to continue the obsession with work. Work comes out of work. In order to work you must already be working.
—Richard Serra
One of the most significant artists of his generation, he has produced large-scale, site-specific sculptures for architectural, urban, and landscape settings spanning the globe, from Iceland to New Zealand.
Born in 1938 in San Francisco, Richard Serra lives and works in New York and on the North Fork of Long Island. Serra attended the University of California, Berkeley before transferring to the University of California, Santa Barbara graduating with a BA in English literature; he then studied painting at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut completing both a BFA and MFA. He began showing with Leo Castelli in 1968, and his first solo exhibition in New York was held at the Leo Castelli Warehouse the following year. His first solo museum exhibition was held at the Pasadena Art Museum, California, in 1970.
Serra’s sculptures and drawings have been celebrated with two retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, twenty years apart: Richard Serra/Sculpture (1986) and Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years (2007). He has had solo exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1977–78); Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany (1978); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany (1978); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (1980, 2014, and 2017); Centre Pompidou, Paris (1983–84); Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany (1985); Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk, Denmark (1986); Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster, Germany (1987); Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (1987); Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (1988); Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands (1990); Kunsthaus Zürich (1990); CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France (1990); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1992); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany (1992); Dia Center for the Arts, New York (1997); Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro (1997–98); Trajan’s Market, Rome (1999–2000); Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis (2003); and Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples, Italy (2004).
In 2005 The Matter of Time (1994–2005), a series of eight large-scale works, was installed permanently at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain. For Monumenta 2008, the major site-specific installation Promenade was shown at the Grand Palais, Paris. Three years later the large-scale, site-specific sculpture 7 was permanently installed opposite the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. A major traveling retrospective dedicated to Serra’s drawings was presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Menil Collection, Houston (the organizing venue), from 2011 to 2012.
In 2014 the Qatar Museums Authority presented a two-venue retrospective survey of Serra’s work, and East-West/West-East (2014) was permanently installed in the Brouq Nature Reserve, Zekreet, Qatar. In 2017 the Museum Wiesbaden, Germany, presented Richard Serra: Props, Films, Early Works; an overview of Serra’s work in film and video was shown at the Kunstmuseum Basel; and recent drawings were featured at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
Serra has participated in numerous major international exhibitions, including Documenta (1972, 1977, 1982, and 1987), and the Biennale di Venezia (1980, 1984, 2001, and 2013), and his work has been included in many Whitney Annuals and Biennials (1968, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1995, and 2006). He is the recipient of the Leone d’Oro for lifetime achievement, Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2001); Orden Pour le Mérite...
Category
2010s Minimalist Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Offset
Forged Rounds, Gagosian gallery exhibition poster, Hand signed by Richard Serra
By Richard Serra
Located in New York, NY
Richard Serra
Forged Rounds (hand signed), 2019
Offset lithograph poster (hand signed by Richard Serra)
26 × 40 inches
Boldly signed in black marker on the front by Richard Serra
Unframed
Acquired from Gagosian Gallery, New York City
From Gagosian Gallery about Serra's Forged Rounds project:
Weight is a value for me—not that it is any more compelling than lightness, but I simply know more about weight than about lightness and therefore I have more to say about it, more to say about the balancing of weight, the diminishing of weight, the addition and subtraction of weight, the concentration of weight, the rigging of weight, the propping of weight, the placement of weight, the locking of weight, the psychological effects of weight, the disorientation of weight, the disequilibrium of weight, the rotation of weight, the movement of weight, the directionality of weight, the shape of weight.
—Richard Serra
Gagosian is pleased to present recent sculptures and drawings by Richard Serra.
At 980 Madison Avenue, a series of new diptych and triptych drawings...
Category
2010s Minimalist Abstract Prints
Materials
Permanent Marker, Lithograph, Offset
Silence For John Cage Hand Signed by Richard Serra exhibition print Minimalist
By Richard Serra
Located in New York, NY
Richard Serra
Silence, For John Cage (Hand Signed), 2016
Offset lithograph (hand signed by Richard Serra)
29 inches vertical × 39 inches horizontal
Boldly signed in black marker on t...
Category
2010s Minimalist Abstract Prints
Materials
Offset, Permanent Marker, Lithograph