Beschreibung:

Richard Serra Follow Ishmael 1987 Oilstick on paper. 71 1/3 x 37 in. (181.2 x 94 cm). Signed and dated "R Serra 87" on the reverse.
Provenance Maeght Lelong Gallery, New York; Jean Bernier Gallery, Athens; R. Louis Bofferding Fine Arts, New York; Pace-Wildenstein, New York Literature H. Janssen, Richard Serra Drawings 1969-1990, Bern, 1991, p. 251, no. 330 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay The present lot exists in direct correlation to the controversy surrounding the artist’s sculpture Tilted Arc. As with many of the artist’s drawings the line between drawing and sculpture is blurred—Richard Serra utilizes the power of pure form to define space and the relationship of the work, its viewer, and their shared environment. Commissioned by the U.S. General Services Administration’s Arts-in-Architectures program for the Federal Plaza in NewYork City and constructed in 1981, Tilted Arc was dismantled against the will of Richard Serra in 1989.The sculpture, measuring one hundred and twenty feet long by twelve feet high, was protested—hailed a nuisance and aid to potential terrorists. As stressed by Serra, the sculpture was only relevant in its intended setting; it could not be moved.The viewer should interact with the sculpture in terms of its environment, the piece constantly changing as one moved around it. A March 1985 public hearing settled the conflict in that Tilted Arc would be taken down.The sculpture would, however, continue to elicit dialogue long after its removal. Ishmael holds a relationship to the viewer and environment similar to that of Tilted Arc.The visual weight of the drawing anchors the space in which it is displayed. Although realized in oilstick on paper as a two-dimensional drawing, the present lot confronts the viewer in the same manner as a three-dimensional sculpture.The slightly angled, geometric composition of Ishmael also references Serra’s gravity-dependent work of the 1970s. Read More