From Publishers Weekly
Through writings and interviews, Serra chronicles not only his evolution as an artist but also touches on some of the responses inspired by the large site-specific urban sculptures for which he is best known. Like his method of sandbox construction where scale models are constantly adjusted in situ , the reader gets a sense of the visions and revisions in his writing. With workman-like logic, Serra addresses the structuralist concerns of his installations and sculpture. But with its cadent listing of the qualities of mass, his prose becomes almost poetical in the piece titled "Weight." Serra is at his pugilistic best when he attacks postmodernist architecture as "signature architecture" and in "An Opinionated Museum Goer," when he criticizes the tyranny of the well-lit white cubes of those architects who define the space of museums without regard to the art that goes in them. Although his aesthetic position is not intrinsicially political, Serra does manage, in Robert Morgan's words, to "collide with political issues." One such example is the cogent, if opinionated, essay "Tilted Arc Destroyed," although subsequent articles concerned with issues of censorship are merely adequate. Since Serra chose the articles included this volume, it should perhaps come as no surprise that it lacks more controversial interviews on the role of public exchange in public sculpture. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
From Library Journal
The removal of Serra's Tilted Arc from Federal Plaza in New York City was one of the seminal events in recent art censorship history, particularly because the controversy focused strictly on the "artistic merit" of the work and not issues such as pornography or politics. Mostly large, site-specific steel structures, Serra's work has a way of raising hackles as well as the question, "What is art?" Containing material that ranges from 1967 to the present, this collection of interviews and essays will help clarify Serra's position and ideas on the nature of art-particularly sculpture, but with asides on film, architecture, and drawing as well. Combative and opinionated, Serra offers an articulate expression of an important contemporary aesthetic that demands reading by both his admirers and his detractors. Highly recommended for collections covering contemporary art or aesthetics.-Martin R. Kalfatovic, Natl. Museum of American Art/Natl. Portrait Gallery Lib., Smithsonian Inst., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
