American Artist Richard Serra Receives Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Ambassador Scharioth awarded Richard Serra the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, which was bestowed upon him by Horst Köhler, President of the Federal Republic of Germany.
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- Ambassador Scharioth (right) presented the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany to artist Richard Serra.
- (© German Embassy, Washington, DC; by C. Avril)
One of the most significant figures in contemporary sculpture, American artist Richard Serra is best known for his massive sculptures in weatherproof steel. Well-known works such as the Torqued Ellipses are often viewed as feats of engineering in and of themselves. His contemporary works are usually site-specific and often reconfigure the public spaces of the viewer.
Collected and displayed in museums throughout the world, Serra’s art has also been featured in numerous exhibitions and retrospectives. Serra’s work is widely known in Germany: he took part in the documenta exhibitions in Kassel in 1972 and 1977, and his artworks can be seen in a number of German cities, including Bochum, Berlin, Bielefeld, and Cologne. His project Bramme fur das Ruhrgebiet, which now serves as a landmark and reminder of the Ruhr area’s industrial past, will feature prominently in the Ruhr.2010 European Capital of Culture celebrations.
The artist has received numerous awards, including the Goslar Award for Modern Art – The Kaiserring, the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Award of the City of Duisburg, and the Praemium Imperiale of the Japanese Art Association. He became a member of the Orden pour le Merite für Wissenschaften und Kunste in 2002 and was made Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2008. He has received numerous honorary doctorate degrees from institutions including Williams College (2008) and Yale University (2009).
Accompanied by his German-born wife, Clara Weyergraf-Serra, Richard Serra received the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany at the Ambassador’s Residence on November 18, 2009.
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- Serra's "Bramme fur das Ruhrgebiet" in Essen, Germany
- (© Photo: Manfred Vollmer )
The fact that Serra refers to himself as a “steelworker” is not only because that is the material out of which he creates his iconic sculptures. The artist has a long history with the medium; he once financed his studies by working at the steel mills on the West Coast. Serra studied English literature at the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara between 1957 and 1961. He then earned his Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees at the Yale School of Art and Architecture, graduating in 1964.
When he entered the New York art world in the 1960s, he soon established a name for himself in group and solo exhibitions with works that employed materials more common in industrial production, including rubber and fiberglass. Having early on discovered how to manipulate steel, however, he soon found new ways of working with this unconventional material in 1970s. Eventually, Serra began to concentrate on large-scale, site-specific works constructed of steel, for which he is best known today.
The artist has been working with a German steel mill to produce his large-scale artworks for several decades. The massive steel constructions not only push the boundaries of production, but they also create structural challenges for the institutions that exhibit the sculptures, which are often forged from tons of steel.
