Wrights Triangle
1976-1980
The Paths We Choose
By: Mayra, Aubrey, Alejandro
Richard Serra
Richard Serra was born in 1983 and grew up in San Francisco. Serra attended the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara, where he received a BA in English literature. After this Serra studied as a painter at Yale University, getting a BFA and MFA. Serra is best known for his large-scale abstract steel sculptures. He worked in steel mills during college and was introduced to the processes of metalwork at an early age. Serra avoided art as a metaphor, focusing more on sculpture as an experience of weight, gravity, space, process, and time. He had his first solo exhibition in 1966 in Galleria La Salita, Rome.
Originally Serra wanted to place Wrights triangle at the base of Red Square, where university traffic flows together. Engineers believe the ground to be too unstable for the piece so it was moved to the location it is in now. At the time of the creation the area the sculpture was built at was a more natural area with mostly grassy hills and trees around it.
Another famous piece of Serra was the Titled Arc, which was commissioned in 1981, for the Federal plaza in New York City. The piece was controversial and brought many people to question the purpose of the piece. The placement of the artwork forced people to interact with the piece due to it blocking the plaza. After a public hearing about the complaints about the piece, it was destroyed in 1989.
Serra’s first sculptures were made of rubber fiberglass and molten lead, he disliked the elitism of the modern art movement turning his focus on Minimalism and pieces that were interactive with its environment. His art was specifically designed for the locations that they would be built in. Richard Serra wasn’t trying to make a political statement but the message was to make choices. The piece allows people to either walk through it or walk around it.
Wright’s Triangle is a sculpture that represents the unification of all people, from all walks of life with a common goal to live the life we deserve, we have the freedom to choose.
Serra’s Work
Richard Serra’s intention was to create a piece that was a political statement for people to ponder. The late 70’s and early 80’s was comprised of many issues America was facing: the Vietnam war, LGBT rights, drug culture and the second rise of feminism was eminent. Serra Intended for the sculpture to confront the public. The confrontation Richard Serra intended on creating was likely influenced by the events taking place at this time. Serra’s goal was to make the public focus on the path they were taking and their own choices.
The American minimalist sculptor, Richard Serra, has created many sculptures such as “Tilted Arc” (1981), “Elevational Mass” (2006), “Fulcrum” (1993) and many others. Most of his works are made of steel or concrete. Originally, though, he was known for works made out of non-traditional materials such as fiberglass and rubber. Later in life, he moved on to creating pieces out of heavier material like steel and concrete.
Around the World During Wright’s Triangle
The Vietnam War had come to a conclusion but a strong sentiment of distrust in the American government, and a search for individualism divided the people, many of the Vietnam veterans came home addicted to opiates and in shell shock. Woman for the first time entered the workforce by the mass to keep up with the demand of war which in turn rattled the idea of gender roles. During the 1960s the second wave of feminism had began which lasted 2 decades. The crack epidemic in the early 1980’s hit the United States like a tsunami, destabilizing mainly black neighborhoods rendering them broken at their foundation. The drug culture was not a color thing, white people were no exception, unlike colored people, white people could afford Cocaine, which fueled the Colombian cartels and the elite society of the U.S. began to take it to their nose.
Wright’s Triangle represents unity and strength. Many people did not believe in the Vietnam War, ultimately they had no choice but to follow orders, the people were sheep’s following a wolfs command. Wright’s Triangle in a way represents that message through feelings of constraint and isolation. The base of the triangle is narrow and long, making you feel constrained and isolated from the picture as a whole. It was a long struggle before woman were seen almost as useful as men in every playing field, but woman also felt the rejection of being seen inferior to men. This feeling is best described when one is “entering the space [there is] a sense of calmness but it can feel oppressive with the immense walls BUT you can look up and feel like you can breath.” The Wright’s Triangle is a sculpture that represents the unification of all people, from all walks of life with a common goal to live the life we deserve, we have the freedom to choose, which is represented with through the interaction with the sculpture. The immense walls become the thing we fear the most, but there is only but a few things that can shake us off our core if we have a strong foundation.
Wright’s Triangle represents fragility, each of the slabs rely on each other for support, originally the slabs were not meant to be fused but for security the WWU required the slabs to be fused. Wright’s Triangle unconsciously forces a person to take one of the three paths: through the triangle, left or right. Serra, found the elitism of the modern art movement unappealing, but he found roots in minimalism and enjoyed art that was interactive with the viewer. Serra was not interested in art that represented metaphors and symbols or held a deeper meaning.
Sources:
“Wright’s Triangle.” Wright’s Triangle | Western Gallery, westerngallery.wwu.edu/sculpture/wrights-triangle.
Guggenheim, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/richard-serra.
Wainwright, Lisa S. “Richard Serra.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 22 Apr. 2016, www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Serra.
“React. Research. Execute!” React Research Execute, wp.wwu.edu/wwuart109/category/southcampus1/serra/.
https://www.theartstory.org/artist-serra-richard.htm
https://wp.wwu.edu/wwuart109/2017/02/23/wrights-triangle-richard-serra-4/
https://gagosian.com/artists/richard-serra/
McShine, Kynaston, and Lynne Cooke. Richard Serra: Sculpture: Forty Years. Museum of Modern Art, 2007.
Griffith, Nathan Paul. Richard Serra and Robert Irwin: Phenomenology in the Age of Art and Objecthood. UMI, 2001.
Weyergraf. Richard Serra: Interviews, Etc. 1970-1980.
McShine Cooke. Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years.
Griffith. Richard Serra and Robert Irwin: Phenomenology in the Age of Art and Objecthood.
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