Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipse series of 1999 was a tour de force – yielding a body of work that contorted gestural abstractions to impact the viewer’s perception of movement and orientation. They are all deeply etched, conveying the rough and abrasive surfaces of their origins in a copper plate. Each interlocking ellipse spins out splatters of ink, capturing traces of Serra’s aggressive mark making. Known for his tireless work ethic and prolific output, Serra engages in the thoughtful process of editing, especially when proofing a massive series of plates for publication; some are simply, often inexplicably, left out. As the title suggests, these four etchings went unprinted for 18 years. In 2016, Gemini’s master printer Xavier Fumat discovered a copper plate that had never been proofed, and re-approached Serra about printing this series, and thus they were Finally Finished.

"The prints are the result of trying to assess and define what surprises me in a sculpture, what I could not understand before a work was built. They enable me to understand different aspects of perception as well as the structural potential of a given sculpture."

-Richard Serra

The deeply etched copper plates used in their printing create a highly textured and dynamic surface. The tremendous scale of these prints (each is 75 x 60 inches) is reminiscent of the forms and surfaces of Serra’s massive sculptures, which are often installed in site-specific public settings.