SERRA AT MOMA

As promised, here is my set of details from the wonderful Richard Serra show at MOMA through September 10.
























Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years takes place in three parts of the museum. In the garden and on the second floor are giant yet gracefully curved panels of metal with varying degrees of oxidation. You can see some of the patterns here, but probably the most typical variation isn't pictured: It's kind of a rich, red velvet look that goes very well with the museum's interior design.
























Up on the sixth floor, in addition to some relatively small works that are like studies in edge and balance, there are other, large works that fill up the viewing rooms like the enclosed Stellas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through July 29. It's a great, unusual experience to be in an exhibition space that's almost filled to bursting by the art on display. The change in perspective is very refreshing. And, in this case, it can be very humorous.
























The contours of the works frame and enclose and separate and engulf you and the other visitors in surprising and often amusing ways that reminded me of Jacques Tati's Playtime, particularly the scene in which M. Hulot loses himself walking down identical intersecting corridors always to be faced by the same woman seated in a swivel chair.
























A great thing about this show is that it can be thoroughly enjoyed in an hour or so by kids and adults alike. (The second floor seems to offer the most family fun.) You can get in free between 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm on Fridays; a long line tends to form for the 4:00 pm entry, but in my experience it's a lot easier to get in around 5:30 pm.
























Photos: David Marc Fischer