To create this project, aptly titled Notebook Drawings, Richard Serra referenced a series of drawings which he created in an intimate, pocket-sized notebook. Serra often spends time with his sculptures, drawing in order to reflect and re-think the completed work, and these prints suggest the form and radiating heat of massive solid steel sculptures as they emerge from the forging process.
All eight drawings appear very spontaneous and likely were executed quickly and simultaneously, and the challenge in making the etchings was to capture that spontaneity and evoke the smudges of the charcoal drawings. The textures which were chemically etched into the copper printing plates by Xavier Fumat, Master Printer and Serra’s longtime Gemini collaborator, are very tight and organic, and were taken from rubbings off asphalt in the Gemini parking lot. The images in all except two are shifted to the right (interestingly, two are nearly centered on the paper) and all are weighted at the bottom of the sheet of Fuji Kozo DHM-11 handmade paper. Printed by Fumat and his assistant Brennan Johnson in limited editions of 40 each, the artist’s approval has been screenprinted on the verso of each impression; the impression number is added in pencil by Gemini G.E.L.
