ARTNews ART REVIEW OF RICHARD SERRA “ARC OF THE CURVE”

“Consistent” is a somewhat abused term often applied to artists. It sometimes translates as “repetitive.” But this latest series of prints by Richard Serra makes it abundantly clear that an artist can have a limited range of concerns over several decades and still wrest from them a succession of magnificent pieces.

The prints in the “Arc of the Curve” series include some of the biggest etchings ever made. Those called “Extensions” are about 4 by 3 feet; the “Trajectories” are bigger still; and the remarkable “Transversals” stretch to almost 8 by 4 feet. They appeared all the more disconcerting for their simplicity. Each presents a huge sweep of fat black ink that almost fills the rectangle of paper hosting it, bleeding off its top and bottom edges, but curving slightly away from its sides.

Standing in front of the overwhelming “Transversals,” one was uncertain whether this vast black expanse was even an image at all. More than a pound of ink is used to create each impression, and its relationship with the paper feels more physical than pictorial. Similarly-despite having been produced by the traditional techniques of biting, inking, wiping and pulling- they are difficult to classify as etchings. The ink’s surface is rough and pitted, like what might result from simply monoprinting ink rolled across a flat surface. But, of course, the nature of the etching process is vital for Serra, and these pieces are so squarely in keeping, so consistent with his ethos of sculpture as physical material that he not only obliges us to question our assumptions about the activity that is printmaking, but actually extends what that activity might be.

Robert Ayers, April 2005