Floor 4: Richard Serra: North entrance from Marden
This QR code provides access to 6 artworks in this gallery.
Gallery Overview
Gallery overview not available.
Objects in This Gallery
4 objects in the order you'll encounter them from this entrance. Select an object to view details.
Wall Text
1969
Lead
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1991
In the 1960s, Serra compiled a list of verbs—such as to roll, to crease, to fold, and to bend—that helped him transform his materials. As he reflected, “Once you understood the basic lesson that procedure was dictated by material, you also realized that matter imposed its own form on form.” Exploring the material properties of lead, Serra rolled a sheet of the metal to create the pole seen here. He then used this element to prop a lead plate against the wall, producing a sculpture that uses the wall, rather than a pedestal, as its support.
Wall Text
1969/1978
Lead antimony
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1991
While some of Serra’s “props,” like the nearby _Floor Pole Prop _and Melnikov II, lean against one or more walls of a room, this work relies on its own individual parts to stand up. The four heavy lead plates lean against one another in a seemingly delicate balance. While they may appear at risk of toppling over, their counterbalanced weight creates a stable structure.
Wall Text
1987
Weatherproof steel
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1988
This massive T form is held in place by the surrounding walls and floor, as well as by the force the two identically sized steel plates exert upon one another. Melnikov II is one of a number of prop pieces by Serra that occupy the corner of a room. Much like Dan Flavin’s corner arrangements of fluorescent light (an example is on view nearby), these works make use of—and transform—the corner. This sculpture is named after Russian Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov (1890–1974), whose structures featured dynamic geometric forms, some of which project outward without visible support.