PARIS.- The last prints produced by Richard Serra, the result of more than forty years of collaboration with the Gemini G.E.L. workshop in Los Angeles, embody the culmination of long periods of research and experimentation in printmaking through a radical and singular practice that has profoundly shaped the history of contemporary print. For more than 35 years, Galerie Lelong has regularly presented Serra’s work.

Two series are brought together in this new exhibition: “Notebook Drawings” (2023) and “Hitchcock” (2024).

The Hitchcock series extends Serra’s exploration of the materiality of black. Produced without a press, these works are the result of an intense manual process, in which a dense mixture of black pigment, linseed oil, melted wax, and silica is directly applied to paper. Layer upon layer, this material creates surfaces of striking intensity, almost sculptural in presence. The black, omnipresent, absorbs and reflects light, generating an impression of monumental void. The edition consists of 56 impressions, each signed by the artist.

The “Notebook Drawings” series is freely inspired by the sketches Serra made in his notebooks. Their translation into printmaking represented a true technical challenge: preserving the raw energy of charcoal, its rubbings and textures. Copper plates were chemically bitten from rubbings made on the asphalt of the studio’s parking lot, producing works of strong presence—organic, dense, and anchored in space. Each print, limited to 40 impressions, bears on the verso the artist’s silkscreen stamp, as Serra passed away before he was able to sign them.

Richard Serra (1939–2024) is recognized as one of the most influential sculptors of the 21st century. His monumental oeuvre has been exhibited in the world’s greatest museums, while his site-specific installations have transformed public and private spaces across continents. He was the subject of two retrospectives at the MoMA (1986 and 2007), as well as major exhibitions at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Grand Palais in Paris (“Monumenta” 2008), and in the Qatari desert with East-West/West-East (2014). Serra also participated in four editions of Documenta (1972, 1977, 1982, 1987) and several Venice Biennales (1980, 1984, 2001, 2013), affirming his constant and essential presence in the landscape of contemporary art.