Richard Serra, 2010 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts

Today is the day when the 2010 Prince of Asturias Awards, annually granted by the Prince of Asturias Foundation, will gradually made public. First of them has been the award for the Arts which it has been bestowed to the American sculptor Richard Serra.

The Jury has decided to confer the 2010 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts on the American sculptor Richard Serra for his “audacity in structuring” from his minimalist perspective “the most significant spaces at an international scale through works of great visual power that are an invitation to reflection and wonder. With strong links to the best tradition of European art throughout his brilliant career, Serra is a multifaceted artist whose universal stature is expressed in forceful forms and suggestive concepts.”

The 71-year-old sculptor was born on San Francisco (U.S.A.). He studied English literature at Berkeley University Fine Arts at Yale. His first exhibition was “Live Animal Habitat” at the “Galeria La Salita” in Rome, since then he has displayed his work in the most representative museums and is present in some of the most important public and private collections worldwide.

The majority of his works are minimalist pieces and large-scale site-specific sculptures made of industrial materials such as lead, steel and concrete. He is considering a master of the large-scale sculpture, and as result, he obtained an Honorary Ph.D from the Universities of Yale, London and the Public University of Navarra. He is Knight (1985) and Commander (2008) of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Academy among other distinctions.

In a statement from New York, Richard Serra said he was “very honored to be the recipient of the Prince of Asturias Award. The award is particularly meaningful to me in that the country of Spain has offered me many great opportunities to realize my work for over three decades.”

Each of the eight international recipients is awarded 50,000 euros, a specially commissioned Joan Miró sculpture, a diploma and an insignia. The Presentation Ceremony of the 2010 Prince of Asturias Awards will take place in the autumn at Campoamor Theater in Oviedo, capital of the Asturias Principality, and it will be presided over by H.R.H the Prince of Asturias.

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Tagged Princess of Asturias Awards, The Arts.