Richard Serra - Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session New York Wednesday, May 15, 2024 | Phillips

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  • “A drawing which would entirely cover its background would cease to be a drawing.”
    —Walter Benjamin

    For philosopher Walter Benjamin, the notion of a drawing is entirely defined by the conspicuousness of the background – and Richard Serra’s Untitled, 1987, with its prudently placed margins, seems to abide by these guidelines. At five feet high and almost nine feet in width, Untitled is a behemoth to behold. The use of paintstick is notable; a combination of pigment, linseed oil, and melted wax molded into a large cylindrical stick, the compound medium becomes a draftsman’s tool in Serra’s hand. Oil from the handmade paintstick seeps out along the edges, framing the jet-black surfaces in a tawny border, and creating a transitional space between the heavily impastoed black passages and the small slivers of handmade paper. Originally in the renowned collection of New York-based patron and collector Raymond J. Learsy, this work comes to market just a couple of months after the beloved artist’s passing this March.

     

    As a drawing by a sculptor, one may presume that the present work is intended to perform a task similar to that of one of his steel or lead monumental sculptures. However, Serra’s goal is quite the opposite. He seeks to posit the black shapes as weights in relation to a given architectural volume. For Serra, to cut is to draw a line; to make a distinction. “Which are the cuts that have to be made in order to destabilize the experience of the space?,” Serra asks himself when creating a drawing.i By thoughtfully adjusting factors such as the texture and composition, here seen in the asymmetrical high-low composition from left to right, Serra’s drawings take on an agency of their own.

    “The drawings make the viewer aware of his body movement in a gallery or a museum space. They make him aware of the six-sidedness of a room.”
    —Richard Serra
    While a student at Yale, Serra was asked to proof Josef Albers’ book, The Interaction of Color, which laid out the color principles Albers used to demonstrate the important axioms and rules of color, as well as its effects. Serra’s interest in abstraction and monochromatic art was likely influenced greatly by Albers’ teachings. As Serra once said, “In terms of weight, black is heavier, creates a larger volume, holds itself in a more compressed field.”ii For him, using solely the color black was a way to avoid metaphorical and other associative misreadings. Just like Albers, Serra was not interested in the “paint-allusion gesture.”iii

    “The drawing installations do not accept a static definition, do not give over easily to analyses and categorizations; they negate traditional definitions.”
    —Richard Serra

    One of the most significant artists of his generation, Serra has left behind a monumental legacy, both in terms of physicality and sheer volume. Now, Serra’s work is timelier and more resonant than ever. Untitled, a lyrical yet sober example of his seminal paintstick drawings, engulfs and eludes the viewer as his work never fails to do.

     

    Josef Albers, Homage to the Square: Precinct, 1951, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: © The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

     

    i Hans Janssen, ed., Richard Serra: Drawings/Zeichnungen 1969-1990, Benteli, 1990, p. 8.

    ii Hans Janssen, Richard Serra: Drawings/Zeichnungen 1969-1990, p. 11.

    iii Ibid.

    • Condition Report

    • Description

      View our Conditions of Sale.

    • Provenance

      The Pace Gallery, New York
      Raymond J. Learsy, New York
      Christie's, New York, November 16, 1999, lot 36
      Grant Selwyn Gallery, New York
      Private Collection (acquired from the above)
      Gifted by the above to the present owner

    • Exhibited

      New York, The Pace Gallery, Wall Props and Drawings, September 25–October 24, 1987
      Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, I Triennal de Dibiux Joan Miró, June 15–September 10, 1989, no. 193, pp. 98, 122 (illustrated, p. 98)

    • Literature

      Hans Janssen, ed., Richard Serra Drawings, Zeichnungen, 1969–1990, Bern, 1991, no. 338, p. 252 (illustrated)

158

Untitled

paintstick on paper
60 3/4 x 107 in. (154.3 x 271.8 cm)
Executed in 1987.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$400,000 - 700,000 

Place Advance Bid
Contact Specialist

Annie Dolan
NY Head of Auctions and Specialist, Head of Sale, Morning Session
212 940 1288
adolan@phillips.com

Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session

New York Auction 15 May 2024