Battleships

Sparrow
June 2015

Richard Serra Viewing, Gagosian Gallery, 980 Madison Avenue, NYC, March, 2015

Richard Serra’s show consisted of just two pieces: large drawings mirroring each other. The titles: “Double Rift #8,” “Double Rift #9.” Almost the entire paper was covered with black, yet I hesitate to call this minimalism. At their periphery these works become subliminally expressionist – because they’re on handmade paper, with a highly irregular edge. Also, the surface isn’t smooth. The paintstick is applied so heavily that it clumps (also you can smell it!) like ice floes on a winter river.

In a sense, these drawings are optical illusions. Because we associate Serra with steel, they take on a monumental bearing. Unconsciously we see them as battleships, though they are just pigment on paper. Their blackness contributes to their weight. They ask the question: “How much weight can a drawing carry?”

One might call this work “mock-industrial:” handmade art on handmade paper that appears (at first) to be produced by a machine. But who actually created them? Serra‘s assistants? Probably. Though these pieces are issued under one man’s name, they have an aggressive air of anonymity.

Each of the pictures are monolithic blocks with two white slits, making them resemble an N. (Actually, “Double Rift #9” looks like a backwards N.) The slits of light give the black figures “legs” to stand on. Is Serra signaling the letter N? Is that pure coincidence?

What could “N” signify? Let me choose a word from the dictionary at random (first locating myself in the N pages):

Ney, Michel. Duke d’Eichingen and Prince de la Moskowa. 1769-1815. French marshal who brilliantly commanded the rear guard in Napoleon I’s retreat from Moscow (1812).

[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language also includes short biographies, like an encyclopedia.]