RICHARD SERRA: THE FINAL WORKS AT CRISTEA ROBERTS
- Avantika Pathania
- Mar 22
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 31
The Final Works at Cristea Roberts Gallery is a profound tribute to an artist who reshaped contemporary art, writes Avantika Pathania.
Installation view of Richard Serra: The Final Works at Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, 2025. Courtesy Cristea Roberts Gallery, London. Photo: Maxwell Anderson
In honour of the first anniversary of Richard Serra's passing at the age of 85, Cristea Roberts Gallery in London presents Richard Serra: The Final Works, an exhibition featuring the last prints produced by the renowned artist. Offering a rare opportunity to view these significant works outside the United States, the exhibition underscores Serra’s lifelong engagement with weight, density, and spatial interaction—ideas he masterfully explored in his monumental steel sculptures and extended into printmaking.
Serra (c.1938–2024) was a defining figure of Postminimalism, known for his large-scale, site-specific steel sculptures that transformed landscapes and architectural spaces. His approach, rooted in simple yet massive forms, evoked a profound physical and psychological response. Influenced by Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline, as well as the phenomenological theories of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Serra believed in the physicality of experience. His career-long preoccupation with materiality and space is evident in both his sculptures and works on paper.
His personal history played a crucial role in shaping his artistic vision. Born in San Francisco to a Spanish mother and a Russian-Jewish father, he grew up in a politically engaged household. “I grew up poor, but the atmosphere was rich,” he once remarked. “There always seemed to be political discussions in the house, debates about what sort of life you should live.” One of his most formative artistic experiences was encountering Velázquez’s Las Meninas, which profoundly altered his understanding of art. “I was still very young and trying to be a painter, and it just knocked me sideways,” he recalled in a 2008 interview with The Guardian. “I looked at it for a long time before it hit me that I was an extension of the painting. This was incredible to me—a real revelation.”
While Serra was best known for his industrial-scale steel sculptures, his printmaking practice was equally radical. The two featured series, Casablanca 1–6 (c. 2022) and Hitchcock I–III (c. 2024), challenge traditional notions of printmaking. Unlike conventional prints, these did not pass through a press. Instead, Serra used a black oil stick—a mixture of pigment, linseed oil, and wax—processed through a meat grinder and an industrial dough mixer with silica. He then applied the material onto handmade Japanese paper, pressing it down in layers with a gloved hand. Each coat required weeks to dry before another could be added, creating a textured, almost sculptural surface.
The paintings in Richard Serra: The Final Works are an abyss of unrelenting black—pitch black, absorbing light rather than reflecting it. Their rough, uneven surfaces resemble freshly laid asphalt, evoking an intense tactile quality. They seem as if they would stain anything they touch, reinforcing Serra’s obsession with material density and labour. As with much of Serra’s work, the meaning lies in the process rather than the final product. The meticulous layering of the oil stick, the pressing and rubbing of the material down repeatedly over weeks, becomes as significant as the visual outcome. This exhibition, perhaps more than any other, highlights the dominance of process over result—an ethos that defined Serra’s artistic legacy.
The gallery space itself amplifies the impact of these works. Stark-white walls and an open layout intensify the deep, suffocating blackness of the prints, making them appear even more impenetrable. The sheer scale of the paper—large and weighty—forces viewers to confront the work physically, drawing them into its void-like depth. Unlike Serra’s towering steel sculptures, which manipulate outdoor landscapes, these prints redefine interior space, absorbing attention rather than commanding it. Serra’s use of black was deeply intentional. He famously stated, “Black is a property, not a quality. In terms of weight, black is heavier, creates a larger volume, holds itself in a more compressed field. It is comparable to forging.” This overwhelming density continues his artistic dialogue on gravity, tension, and materiality.
Perhaps the most striking juxtaposition in the exhibition is found in photographs of Serra at work, displayed alongside the tools and oil sticks he used. His hands and clothes, smeared with the thick, coal-like mixture, reveal the raw, physical labour behind his art. The chaos of creation contrasts sharply with the precise, uniform edges of the final prints. This paradox raises a fundamental question: could these final works represent the pinnacle of Postminimalist art, where the process of making it supersedes the finished object itself?
Serra’s career evolved alongside Postminimalism, a movement that emerged in response to Minimalism’s rigid formalism. His approach was always more tactile and process-driven, from his early experiments throwing molten lead against gallery walls to his precariously balanced steel plates. His sculptures, such as Torqued Ellipses (c.1996–97) and Tilted Arc (c. 1981), redefined spatial experience, forcing viewers to navigate and physically engage with the work. His printmaking, while visually distinct, adheres to the same principles—examining weight, balance, and voids in a two-dimensional format.
Richard Serra: The Final Works is not merely a posthumous tribute, it is a declaration of artistic intent. These last prints reaffirm Serra’s commitment to labour, materiality, and the experiential power of art. Though quieter than his monumental sculptures, they are no less impactful, distilling his lifelong investigations into form and process into their purest essence. In one of his last interviews, Serra reflected on his later works, stating, “The space within the work becomes as important as the material itself.” This philosophy manifests profoundly in The Final Works, where his manipulation of a black oil stick creates spatial illusions that transcend the paper’s surface.
Serra’s legacy is one of transformation—of spaces, materials, and perception itself. In these last works, his signature investigations into weight and space reach a climactic resolution—his final act of artistic defiance against the boundaries of medium and form. More than a retrospective, this exhibition stands as a testament to an artist who never ceased to push, question, and redefine the nature of art itself.
Richard Serra: The Final Works runs from 13 March – 26 April 2025 at Cristea Roberts, London.
Avantika Pathania is a London-based writer and arts journalist.
