1. What were Richard Serra's goals for the installation?
Serra wanted to create sculptures that would be read as volumes, not as planes, slices, objects, cuts, or lines. He wanted his sculptures to act as a counterweight to the columns and the weight of the stone. He want to create a horizontal axis to balance the vertical axis created by the architecture of the building. He wanted his sculptures to react to the volume and scale of the space in a comparable way to the architecture.
2. Define the field Serra is referring to when he states that his sculptural elements need to create "enough tension within the field to hold the experience of presence in the place". How do you define "experience of presence"?
Serra is defining the horizontal field created by the top plane of each sculpture. This horizontal plane stretches from the south gallery, across the octagonal space, to the north gallery. The "experience of presence" is part of the reality of architecture. It is architecture that belongs simply because it exists, and is non-apologetic. Serra creates this by adding his two sculptures to the gallerias, and having them read as volumes comparable to the architecture of the galleries.
3. How do the columns, pedestal condition, octagonal space and vertical axis challenge Serra?
The columns represent a sculptural experience in themselves because of their shape and size, and Serra had to balance this with his own sculptures. Their circular shape prevented Serra from using the circular shape for his sculptures because of contextualisation. The circular shape would be too similar to the column shape. The pedestal condition is created in the octagonal space. Anything placed in this space appears to be raised even though there is no actual pedestal. Serra had to remove a sculpture from this place when deciding where and what number of sculptures to use. Placing an element here would cause an interruption in the horizontal plane, or experience, created by Serra's sculptures. The vertical axis creates a challenge for Serra because he has to create sculptures that react with this axis to read as volumes of the gallery space.
4. What is effective in terms of the shape, scale and number of the two square elements in the Duveen Galleries?
The square shape is effective in not representing the architecture of the space two closely, however the shape helps the sculptures read as volumes, by not drawing too much attention to their form to read as objects. The number two is effective in the same sense in that not having multiple copies allows the sculptures to read as volumes and not as separate objects. The scale of the objects is comparable to the architecture of the space, and is able to create a relation to that space, which having a smaller scale would allow it to be too familiar and not relate to the space.
5. Describe the differences and similarities between Barnett Newman's and Richard Serra's work.
Barnett Newman's sculptures are more object based than Serra's work, and they sit in space rather than defining and belonging to that space as Serra's sculptures do. Newman's paintings are similar to Serra's work though. Newman's paintings have a vertical axis that acts in relation to the horizontal axis of the painting, as does Serra's sculptures at the DuVeen Galleries.
