The Cantor Arts Center recently received on loan from the Fisher Art Foundation a 235-ton sheet metal sculpture entitled “Sequence”; the piece, by American minimalist sculptor Richard Serra, was installed last week.
“Sequence” is 67 feet long, 42 feet wide and 13 feet deep. Cantor had previous displayed another of Serra’s sculptures entitled “Call Me Ishmael,” which had also been loaned by the Fisher Foundation.
Considered of one Serra most distinguished works, “Sequence” was made out of solid steel in 2006. Before coming to Stanford, it had previously been showcased at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and at the New York Museum of Modern Art. However, this is the first time that visitors will be able to view the sculpture outdoors.
Thomas Seligman, director of the Cantor Arts Center, expressed positive feelings on Stanford’s opportunity to showcase this work.
“What Richard Serra does–he creates space that has never been created before,” Seligman said. “He creates sculptures that are made from very obvious material, its about two-inch thick steel. So you can see exactly what it is, but when you get into this space you feel strange sometimes, he creates vertigo, he creates these canyon-like spaces, and what wonderful here is the shadow patterns because it’s the first time that it’s been seen outdoors.”
The decision to place the sculpture at Stanford comes from the Fishers’ close ties to the University.
“Stanford was chosen because the Fishers have close connections to the University, Doris Fisher is an alumna,”said Laura Satersmoen executive director of Fisher. “We talked to the Director, Tom Seligman, about the possibility, and he jumped on it. It’s one of Richard Serra’s great sculptures.”
A vast majority of the costs of installing, maintaining and displaying the sculpture are being payed for by the Fisher Foundation. Officials declined to disclose exact financial numbers, but hinted that bringing the sculpture to Cantor has been quite expensive. Regardless, Seligman cited the ancillary benefit of exposing an audience that would have otherwise been unable to enjoy the sculptures’ beauty and architectural design
“You can think of the engineers here [at Stanford] and you could think of people who are involved in design and architecture, it’s not just for people who are interested in the arts,” he said. “How it’s made; there’s apparently two places in the world who can do this kind of steel work.”
“Sequence” will also be instrumental in teaching art at the University and in the community, according to Patience Young, curator for education at the Cantor.
She highlighted “the beauty of having something of this magnitude by somebody who is well documented, who has a career accomplishment, of controversy–a work by Richard Serra was the subject of a major lawsuit concerning art, I think in the 1980’s–and somebody who has gone through the ringer with issues of authorship and of intention is right for studying and discussion.”
Serra himself cited the piece as a vessel for instigating different emotions in different people, as it doesn’t have a one concrete meaning.
In an interview with The New Yorker, Serra said that his sculptures evoke a variety of feelings.
“Whatever the work is evoking in people, I don’t dictate that, so I don’t know how to account for it,” he said of the piece.
The Cantor also has one of Serra’s drawings in their collection. It will be displaying “Sequence” until 2016 when it will be moved to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in line with that museum’s estimated completion date for its expansion.