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Serra studied in Berkeley and Santa Barbara from 1957 to 1961. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, he completed his further studies with the title of Master of Fine and Liberal Arts. From 1961 to 1964 he was a student of the German-American painter and designer Josef Albers at the University of California and at Yale University in New Haven. He then worked in a steelworks. In 1964 he took a trip to Italy. There he came across the movements of Arte pova and Minimal Art, which influenced him. In 1966 he moved to New York and made contact with Minimal Art artists. Serra incorporated his suggestions into sculptural works, which he decorated with materials such as lead, neon tubes and rubber. The work entitled "Belts" was created in 1966 and 1967. At the end of the 1960s, Richard Serra realized a kind of process art, for example by exhibiting lead that had been shaped by throwing. In 1969 he created his object "Casting" in this way. From 1968 onwards, Serra made monumental sculptures from steel and iron. He also worked in the techniques of printmaking, drawing, video and film.
In 1970, Richard Serra was approved for a Guggenheim Fellowship. Five years later, in 1975, he was awarded the "Sculpture Award" from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. The themes of his large steel and iron sculptures are mass and heaviness. The metal plates, which weigh several tons and are many meters high, are combined in such a way that they remain in balance largely through their arrangement and without additional anchoring. Serra succeeds in positioning his art objects based on the most precise calculations. The laws of physics such as balance and gravity are not only the central theme of his sculptural works of art, but are also part of the art objects themselves. The metal plates, which are up to 17 meters high, cause the viewer to weigh up the risk and feelings in their apparent lightness and in view of the lack of fastening systems Uncertainty. With these compositions, Richard Serra orients himself more towards architectural designs. He consults engineers and fitters to create his monumental sculptures. His area of activity extends far beyond his studio.
In 1976 and 1977 he installed the "Terminal" object in Bochum. The artist's sculptures create an ambivalent relationship to their surroundings. Firstly, in terms of size and shape, they have a rather harmonious relationship with their surroundings, in such a way that new experiences are opened up in the otherwise familiar location. On the other hand, the artist intends to create a contradiction to the surroundings with his art of large sculptures. This involves change and the creation of your own environment. The artist describes his artwork in this regard as "anti-decorative". The overall work of art is editorial and the arrangement of the individual elements, which creates an emotional effect on the viewer, appears massive. However, Serra's monumental sculptures were controversial when they were presented in public.
In 1989, the New York City Council even had the Tilted Arc object torn down. His work is free from any political or social themes. In 1991 the artist settled in New York. In 1998 he withdrew from the competition for the planned Holocaust memorial in Berlin. In 2002 he was awarded the Order Pour le Mérite. In 2005, the expansive walk-in installation "The Matter of Time" was created for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The work is one of the largest sculptural commissions ever developed for a specific space in the history of modernism. The walk-in installation of seven monumental steel sculptures, some weighing around 40 tons, create sculptures that appear light and playful. In 2012 Serra became a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 2014 he was awarded the Alexej von Jawlensky Prize in Wiesbaden.
