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Thursday, 14 April 2011 04:54

Sculptor Serra shows unsung drawings at NY museum

A 1989 sketch by artist Richard Serra entitled "The United States Government Destroys Art". A 1989 sketch by artist Richard Serra entitled "The United States Government Destroys Art". Credit: REUTERS/Copyright Richard Serra

A new show, "Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective," opening on Wednesday at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, exposes nearly 40-years worth of the artist's drawings, sketches and works on paper.

"My drawings are seen very infrequently ... so I think for a lot of people who don't know the work, it's probably going to be an eye opener," Serra, 71, told reporters on Monday, adding "I don't mean that good or badly."

The show, which progresses chronologically, is the first to gather the whole span of Serra's drawings, all of which are black and white.

In charcoal drawings on paper from the early 1970's, black shapes are either cleanly defined and starkly geometrical, or have erratic smudges and pencil lines. One 18-part series, called "Drawings after Circuit," consists of thin vertical black lines on yellow paper creating the illusion of a wall of irregular matchsticks.

Other works, painted in solid black with a paint stick on thick linen sheets, are stretched across walls in irregular shapes and angles, like giant swatches of ship sails.

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