Death of American Sculptor Richard Serra

The New York Times reported today, Wednesday, that the American artist and sculptor Richard Serra, whose massive steel sculptures adorn gardens and large exhibition halls in the finest museums around the world, has passed away at the age of 85. The newspaper quoted his attorney, John Silberman, as saying that Serra died at his home in Long Island, New York, due to pneumonia. According to his biography published by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum, Serra was born in San Francisco in 1938 to a Spanish father and a Russian mother. He frequently visited shipyards where his father worked, as well as working in steel factories during his youth. After his college education, he moved to New York in 1966, where he began creating artworks from materials such as metals, fiberglass, and rubber. After traveling to Spain to study architecture in the early 1980s, his work gained fame in Europe, with exhibitions held in major museums in Germany and France. Serra's work was especially appreciated in Spain, his father's homeland.