Serra's Torqued Ellipse IV
Serra's Torqued Ellipse IV
This is an exploration of the geometric basis of sculptor Richard Serra's Torqued Ellipse IV (1998). Torqued Ellipse IV, constructed of 2-inch-thick weathering steel, is about 12 feet high on an elliptical footprint with 33 and 22 foot axes. Its "skylight" opening is an identical ellipse, rotated an angle of 90 degrees. The shell is generated by a line that connects the tangent points, lower and upper, of a plane rolling on the ellipses. This sculpture was most recently installed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.