A brochure for Richard Serra’s first solo show, from 1966, surfaced recently in the archives. Though often excised from his oeuvre, Serra, then on a Fullbright in affiliation with Academie Belles Artes in Florence, showed live and stuffed animals along with sculptural collages or Rauschenbergian “combines” at Gallery La Salita in Rome.
In a brief but provocative statement, he writes
The work involves a placement of juxtaposed materials for the sake of the idea: the projected sexual metaphor. The concern is not with the merit of any particular esthetic object. The works are psychological and obsessive. Medium is mixed — Animals are used as sex. Containers as sex. Experience as sex. My ambition is to present a daisy chain. R.S.
Serra taught drawing and sculpture at SVA from 1968 until 1970.