Inca, 1989

About the Work

The black paint in Richard Serra’s ‘Inca’ possesses a materiality that is virtually physical in nature. It saturates the paper, lending it an almost sculptural quality. The black mass emanates a sense of immense heaviness which defies quantification. Two surfaces are joined in the lower area of the painting, with a crack opening up between them towards the top to reveal the white ground. In their ponderousness, the different-size surfaces look less like two adjacent painted forms and more like bodies leaning against one another.