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Guru Gobind Singh

Guru Gobind Singh (born Gobind Das;    22 December 1666 – 7 October 1708) was the tenth and last human Sikh Guru. He was a warrior, poet, and philosopher. In 1675, at the age of nine he was formally installed as the leader of the Sikhs after his father Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed by Emperor Aurangzeb. His father was the ninth Sikh Guru. His four biological sons died during his lifetime – two in battle and two executed by the Mughal governor Wazir Khan.

Among his notable contributions to Sikhism are founding the Sikh warrior community called Khalsa in 1699 and introducing the Five Ks, the five articles of faith that Khalsa Sikhs wear at all times. Guru Gobind Singh is credited with the Dasam Granth whose hymns are a sacred part of Sikh prayers and Khalsa rituals. He is also credited as the one who finalized and enshrined the Guru Granth Sahib as Sikhism's primary holy religious scripture and the eternal Guru.

Family and early life
Gobind Singh was the only son of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh guru, and Mata Gujri. He was born into the Sodhi clan of the Punjabi Khatri community. He was born in Patna, Bihar on 22 December 1666 while his father was visiting Bengal and Assam. According to Desi Calender, his birth date is Seven days after the New Moon Day in the Lunar Month of Poh (also called Poh Sudi 7 ਪੰਜਾਬੀ- ਪੋਹ ਸੁਦੀ ੭). His birth name was Gobind Das and a shrine named Takht Sri Patna Harimandar Sahib marks the site of the house where he was born and spent the first four years of his life. In 1670, his family returned to Punjab, and in March 1672, they moved to Chakk Nanaki in the Himalayan foothills of north India, called the Sivalik range, where he was schooled.

Tegh Bahadur was petitioned by Kashmiri Pandits in 1675 for protection from the fanatic persecution by Iftikar Khan, the Mughal governor of Kashmir under Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Tegh Bahadur considered a peaceful resolution by meeting Aurangzeb, but was cautioned by his advisors that his life may be at risk. The young Gobind Das – to be known as Gobind Singh after 1699 – advised his father that no one was more worthy to lead and make a sacrifice than him. His father made the attempt, but was arrested then publicly beheaded in Delhi on 11 November 1675 under the orders of Aurangzeb for refusing to convert to Islam and the ongoing conflicts between Sikhism and the Islamic Empire. Before dying, Tegh Bahadur wrote a letter to Gobind Das (the letter was called Mahalla Dasven and it is part of the Guru Granth Sahib) as one last test to find the next Guru, after his father's martyrdom he was made the tenth Sikh Guru on Vaisakhi on 29 March 1676.

The education of Gobind Singh continued after he became the 10th Guru, both in reading and writing as well as martial arts such as horse riding and archery. The Guru learned Farsi in a year and at the age of 6 started training in martial arts. In 1684, he wrote the Chandi di Var in Punjabi language – a legendary war between the good and the evil, where the good stands up against injustice and tyranny, as described in the ancient Sanskrit text Markandeya Purana. He stayed in Paonta, near the banks of river Yamuna, until 1685. Guru Gobind Singh had three wives:
 * At age 10, he married Jito on 21 June 1677 at Basantgaṛh, 10 km north of Anandpur. The couple had three sons: Jujhar Singh (b. 1691), Zorawar Singh (b. 1696), and Fateh Singh (b. 1699).
 * At age 17, he married Sundari on 4 April 1684 at Anandpur. The couple had one son, Ajit Singh (b. 1687).
 * At age 33, he married Sahib Devan on 15 April 1700 at Anandpur. They had no children, but she had an influential role in Sikhism. Guru Gobind Singh proclaimed her as the Mother of the Khalsa. The Guru initially rejected her marriage proposal as he was already married and had four sons. The Sangat and the Guru's family agreed to the marriage. However, Gobind Singh made it clear that his relationship with Sahib Diwan will be spiritual and not physical.

The life example and leadership of Gobind Singh have been of historical importance to the Sikhs. He institutionalized the Khalsa (literally, Pure Ones), who played the key role in protecting the Sikhs long after his death, such as during the nine invasions of Panjab and the attacks by Ahmad Shah Abdali from Afghanistan between 1747 and 1769.

Birth name
While his birth name is commonly acknowledged as being "Gobind Rai", J.S Grewal and W.H McLeod, among other scholars, assert that hukamnamas and documents issued by his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, mention him as "Gobind Das". According to McLeod, "Gobind Rai" was an exonym used within Muslim sources.

Founding the Khalsa
In 1699, Guru Gobind Singh requested the Sikhs to congregate at Anandpur on Vaisakhi (the annual spring harvest festival). According to the Sikh tradition, he asked for a volunteer. One came forward, whom he took inside a tent. The Guru returned to the crowd alone, with a bloody sword. He asked for another volunteer, and repeated the same process of returning from the tent without anyone and with a bloodied sword four more times. After the fifth volunteer went with him into the tent, the Guru returned with all five volunteers, all safe. He called them the Panj Pyare and the first Khalsa in the Sikh tradition.

Gobind Singh then mixed water and sugar into an iron bowl, stirring it with a double-edged sword to prepare what he called Amrit ("nectar"). He then administered this to the Panj Pyare, accompanied with recitations from the Adi Granth, thus founding the khande ka pahul (baptization ceremony) of a Khalsa – a warrior community. The Guru also gave them a new surname "Singh" (lion). After the first five Khalsa had been baptized, the Guru asked the five to baptize him as a Khalsa. This made the Guru the sixth Khalsa, and his name changed from Guru Gobind Das to Guru Gobind Singh. This initiation ceremony replaced the charan pahul ritual practiced by the previous gurus, in which an initiate would drink the water either the Guru or a masand of the guru had dipped their right toe in.

Gobind Singh initiated the Five K's tradition of the Khalsa,
 * Kesh: uncut hair.
 * Kangha: a wooden comb.
 * Kara: an iron or steel bracelet worn on the wrist.
 * Kirpan: a sword.
 * Kacchera: short breeches.

He also announced a code of discipline for Khalsa warriors. Tobacco, eating 'halal' meat (a way of slaughtering in which the animal's throat is slit open and it is left to bleed before being slaughtered), fornication and adultery were forbidden. The Khalsas also agreed to never interact with those who followed rivals or their successors. The co-initiation of men and women from different castes into the ranks of Khalsa also institutionalized the principle of equality in Sikhism regardless of one's caste or gender. Gobind Singh's significance to the Sikh tradition has been very important, as he institutionalized the Khalsa, resisted the ongoing persecution by the Mughal Empire, and continued the defence of dharma, by which he meant True Religion, against the assault of Aurangzeb.

He introduced ideas that indirectly challenged the discriminatory taxes imposed by the Mughal authorities. For example, Aurangzeb had imposed taxes on non-Muslims that were collected from the Sikhs as well, the jizya (poll tax on non-Muslims), pilgrim tax, and Bhaddar tax – the last being a tax to be paid by anyone following the Hindu ritual of shaving the head after the death of a loved one and cremation. Guru Gobind Singh declared that Khalsa does not need to continue this practice, because Bhaddar is not dharam, but a bharam (illusion). Not shaving the head also meant not having to pay the taxes by Sikhs who lived in Delhi and other parts of the Mughal Empire. However, the new code of conduct also led to internal disagreements between Sikhs in the 18th century, particularly between the Nanakpanthi and the Khalsa.

Gobind Singh had a deep respect for the Khalsa and stated that there is no difference between the True Guru and the sangat (panth). Before his founding of the Khalsa, the Sikh movement had used the Sanskrit word Sisya (literally, disciple or student), but the favored term thereafter became Khalsa. Additionally, prior to the Khalsa, the Sikh congregations across India had a system of Masands appointed by the Sikh Gurus. The Masands led the local Sikh communities, local temples, and collected wealth and donations for the Sikh cause. Gobind Singh concluded that the Masands system had become corrupt, he abolished them and introduced a more centralized system with the help of Khalsa that was under his direct supervision. These developments created two groups of Sikhs, those who initiated as Khalsa, and others who remained Sikhs but did not undertake the initiation. The Khalsa Sikhs saw themselves as a separate religious entity, while the Nanakpanthi Sikhs retained their different perspective.

The Khalsa warrior community tradition started by Guru Gobind Singh has contributed to modern scholarly debate on pluralism within Sikhism. His tradition has survived into the modern times, with initiated Sikh referred to as Khalsa Sikh, while those who do not get baptized referred to as Sahajdhari Sikhs.

Sikh scriptures
"Piara Singh Padam in his Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji de Darbari Ratan highlights that Guru Gobind Singh gave as much regard to the pen as to the sword." Guru Gobind Singh is credited in the Sikh tradition with finalizing the Kartarpur Pothi (manuscript) of the Guru Granth Sahib – the primary scripture of Sikhism. The final version did not accept the extraneous hymns in other versions, and included the compositions of his father Guru Tegh Bahadur. Gobind Singh also declared this text to be the eternal Guru for Sikhs.

Gobind Singh is also credited with the Dasam Granth. It is a controversial religious text considered to be the second scripture by some Sikhs, and of disputed authority to other Sikhs. The standard edition of the text contains 1,428 pages with 17,293 verses in 18 sections. The Dasam Granth includes hymns, mythological tales from Hindu texts, a celebration of the feminine in the form of goddess Durga, fables dealing with sexuality, an autobiography, secular stories from the Puranas and the Mahabharata, letters to others such as the Mughal emperor, as well as reverential discussion of warriors and theology.

In his writings Guru Gobind Singh uses a variety of pen names such as Shyam, Raam, Kaal, Gobind Das, Gobind Singh, Nanak, and Shah Gobind.

According to the Bansavlinama, written in 1755 by Kesar Singh Chibbar, Sikhs requested that Gobind Singh merge Dasam Granth with the Guru Granth Sahib. Gobind Singh responded to the request by saying, "This is the Adi Guru Granth; The root book. That one (Dasam Granth) is only for my diversion. Let this be kept in the mind and let the two stay separate."

The Dasam Granth has a significant role in the initiation and the daily life of devout Khalsa Sikhs. Parts of its compositions such as the Jaap Sahib, Tav-Prasad Savaiye and Benti Chaupai are the daily prayers (Nitnem) and sacred liturgical verses used in the initiation of Khalsa Sikhs.

Wars
The period following the execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur – the father of Guru Gobind Singh, was a period where the Mughal Empire under Aurangzeb was an increasingly hostile enemy of the Sikh people. The Sikh resisted, led by Gobind Singh, and the Muslim-Sikh conflicts peaked during this period. Both Mughal administration and Aurangzeb's army had an active interest in Gobind Singh. Aurangzeb issued an order to exterminate Gobind Singh and his family.

Gobind Singh believed in a Dharamyudh (war in defence of righteousness), something that is fought as a last resort, neither out of a wish for revenge nor for greed nor for any destructive goals. To the Guru, one must be prepared to die to stop tyranny, end persecution, and to defend one's own religious values. He led fourteen wars with these objectives, but never took captives nor damaged anyone's place of worship.

Battles
Guru Gobind Singh fought 21 battles against the Mughal Empire and the kings of Siwalik Hills. After the creation of the Khalsa the Hill Rajas, who had previously lost in battle to Guru Gobind Singh, sent a petition to Delhi requesting they act immediately and join them in battle against the Guru.l
 * Battle of Anandpur (1682) Bhim Chand attacks Gobind Singh.
 * Battle Of Anandpur (1685) Bhim Chand attacks Gobind Singh once again
 * Battle of Bhangani (1688), which states chapter 8 of Gobind Singh's Bicitra Natak, when Fateh Shah, along with mercenary commanders Hayat Khan and Najabat Khan, attacked his forces without any purpose. The Guru was aided by the forces of Kripal (his maternal uncle) and a Brahmin named Daya Ram, both of whom he praises as heroes in his text. The Guru's cousin named Sango Shah was killed in the battle, a cousin from Guru Hargobind's daughter.
 * Battle of Nadaun (1691), against the Islamic armies of Mian Khan and his son Alif Khan, who were defeated by the allied forces of Gobind Singh, Bhim Chand and other Hindu kings of Himalayan foothills. The non-Muslims aligned to the Guru had refused to pay tribute to the Islamic officials based in Jammu.
 * In 1693, Aurangzeb was fighting the Hindu Marathas in the Deccan region of India, and he issued orders that Guru Gobind Singh and Sikhs should be prevented from gathering in Anandpur in large numbers.
 * Battle of Anandpur (1695) Mughals attack Gobind Singh at Anandpur
 * Battle of Guler (1696), first against the Muslim commander Dilawar Khan's son Rustam Khan, near Sutlej river, where the Guru teamed up with the Hindu king of Guler and routed the Muslim army. The commander sent his general Hussain Khan against the armies of the Guru and the Guler kingdom, a war fought near Pathankot, and Hussain Khan was defeated and killed by the joint forces.
 * Battle of Anandpur (1699), was against two Rajas of the hills.
 * Battle of Anandpur (1700), against the Mughal army of Aurangzeb, who had sent 10,000 soldiers, in response to the Hill Rajas letter, under the command of Painda Khan and Dina Beg. In direct combat between Gobind Singh and Painda Khan, the latter was killed. His death led to the Mughal army fleeing the battlefield.
 * First siege of Anandpur, The hill Rajas of northern Punjab regrouped after defeat at Anandpur the previous year and resumed their campaign against Gobind Singh, joining forces with Gujar and other tribesmens to besiege Anandpur, northeast of Ludhiana. Gujar leader Jagatullah was killed on the first day and the Rajas were driven off after a brilliant defence led by the Guru's son Ajit Singh.
 * Battle of Taragarh was a battle fought in defence during the Siege of Anandpur.
 * Battle of Basoli (1702), against the Mughal army; named after the kingdom of Basoli whose Raja Dharampul supported the Guru in the battle. The Mughal army was supported by rival kingdom of Kahlur led by Raja Ajmer Chand. The battle ended when the two sides reached a tactical peace.
 * First Battle of Chamkaur (1702), Mughal Army was repulsed.
 * Battle of Anandpur (1703) was fought between the Sikhs and the Hill Rajas. The Sikh won.
 * First Battle of Anandpur (1704), Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb sent a fresh force into northern Punjab under General Saiyad Khan, later replaced by Ramjan Khan. Ramjan was mortally wounded in further very heavy fighting around the Sikh stronghold at Anandpur, northeast of Ludhiana, and his force again withdrew.
 * Second siege of Anandpur, According to scholars, this siege was triggered by the proliferation of armed Sikhs in Anandpur, the increasing numbers creating a shortage of supplies. This led the Sikhs to raid local villages for supplies, food, and forage, which in turn dramatically frustrated the local pahari rajas who forged alliances and mounted an attack on Guru Gobind Singh's patrimony. The Mughal general was fatally wounded by Sikh soldiers, and the army withdrew. Aurangzeb then sent a larger army with two generals, Wazir Khan and Zaberdast Khan in May 1704, to destroy the Sikh resistance. The approach the Islamic army took in this battle was to lay a protracted siege against Anandpur, from May to December, cutting off all food and other supplies moving in and out, along with repeated battles. Some Sikh men deserted the Guru during the Anandpur siege in 1704 and escaped to their homes where their women shamed them and they rejoined the Guru's army and died fighting with him in 1705. Towards the end, the Guru, his family, and followers accepted an offer by Aurangzeb of safe passage out of Anandpur. However, as they left Anandpur in two batches, they were attacked, and one of the batches with Mata Gujari and Guru's two sons – Zorawar Singh aged 8 and Fateh Singh aged 5 – were taken captive by the Mughal army. Both his children were executed by burying them alive into a wall. The grandmother Mata Gujari died there as well.
 * Battle of Sarsa (1704), against the Mughal army led by general Wazir Khan; the Muslim commander had conveyed Aurangzeb's promise of a safe passage to Guru Gobind Singh and his family in early December. However, when the Guru accepted the offer and left, Wazir Khan took captives, executed them and pursued the Guru. The retreating troops he was with were repeatedly attacked from behind, with heavy casualties to the Sikhs, particularly while crossing the Sarsa river.
 * Battle of Chamkaur (1704) Regarded as one of the most important battles in Sikh history. It was against the Mughal army led by Nahar Khan; the Muslim commander was killed, while on Sikh side the remaining two elder sons of the Guru – Ajit Singh and Jujhar Singh, along with other Sikh soldiers were killed in this battle.
 * Battle of Muktsar (1705), the Guru's army was re-attacked by the Mughal army, being hunted down by general Wazir Khan, in the arid area of Khidrana-ki-Dhab. The Mughals were blocked again, but with many losses of Sikh lives – particularly the famous Chalis Mukte (literally, the "forty liberated ones"), and this was the last battle led by Guru Gobind Singh. The place of battle called Khidrana was renamed about a 100 years later by Ranjit Singh to Mukt-sar (literally, "lake of liberation"), after the term "Mukt" (moksha) of the ancient Indian tradition, in honour of those who gave their lives for the cause of liberation.
 * Battle of Baghaur (1707) was fought against the Raja of Bhghaur and the locals of the area. It began over a dispute when some camels of the Guru went and ate the trees of a local gardener. The gardener took the camels and the rider hostage. Sikh negotiated for the release but he refused which led to a battle.
 * Battle of Jajau (1707) was fought between Azam Shah and Bhadur Shah over the Mughal throne. Bahdur Shah sought Guru Gobind Singh's assistance. Gobind Singh provided assistance and is said to have killed Azam Shah in battle.

Mughal accounts
The Muslim historians of the Mughal court wrote about Guru Gobind Singh as well as the geopolitics of the times he lived in, and these official Persian accounts were readily available and the basis of colonial era English-language description of Sikh history. According to Dhavan, the Persian texts that were composed by Mughal court historians during the lifetime of Gobind Singh were hostile to him but presented the Mughal perspective. They believed that the religious Guru tradition of Sikhs had been corrupted by him, through the creation of a military order willing to resist the imperial army. Dhavan writes that some Persian writers who wrote decades or a century after the death of Gobind Singh evolved from relying entirely on court histories of the Mughals which disparage the Guru, to including stories from the Sikh gurbilas text that praise the Guru.

The Mughal accounts suggest that the Muslim commanders viewed the Sikh panth as one divided into sects with different loyalties.

Relationship with other religious groups
As a result of the violent hostility between the Sikhs and the Mughal armies, Guru Gobind Singh ordered the social segregation between the Khalsa and the Muslims, the sentiments of which are reiterated in the contemporary and posthumous rahit-namas. To a lesser extent, injunctions were also made prohibiting the partake in certain Hindu rituals and beliefs as well as against schismatic Sikh factions opposed to the orthodox Khalsa community.

Post-war years
After the Second Battle of Anandpur in 1704, the Guru and his remaining soldiers moved and stayed in different spots including hidden in places such as the Machhiwara jungle of southern Panjab.

Some of the various spots in north, west, and central India where the Guru lived after 1705, include Hehar with Kirpal Das (maternal uncle), Manuke, Mehdiana, Chakkar, Takhtupura, and Madhe and Dina (Malwa region). He stayed with relatives or trusted Sikhs such as the three grandsons of Rai Jodh, a devotee of Guru Har Gobind.

Zafarnama
Guru Gobind Singh saw the war conduct of Aurangzeb and his army against his family and his people as a betrayal of a promise, unethical, unjust, and impious. After all of Gobind Singh's children had been killed by the Mughal army and the battle of Muktsar, the Guru wrote a defiant letter in Persian to Aurangzeb, titled Zafarnama (literally, "epistle of victory"), a letter which the Sikh tradition considers important towards the end of the 19th century.

The Guru's letter was stern yet conciliatory to Aurangzeb. He indicted the Mughal Emperor and his commanders in spiritual terms, and accused them of a lack of morality both in governance and in the conduct of war. The letter predicted that the Mughal Empire would soon end, because it persecutes, and is full of abuse, falsehood, and immorality. The letter is spiritually rooted in Gobind Singh's beliefs about justice and dignity without fear.

Death of family members

Guru Gobind Singh's four sons, also referred to as Chaar Sahibzaade (the four princes), were killed during his lifetime – the elder two in a battle with Mughals, and the younger two executed by the Mughal governor of Sirhind. The Guru and his two elder sons had escaped the siege of Anandpur in December 1704 and reached Chamkaur, but they were pursued by a large Mughal army. In the ensuing battle, Guru's elder sons, also called the 'Vaade Sahibzaade' fought bravely, but the Mughal army was much larger and well equipped. While the Guru was taken to a safe place, his elder sons, Sahibzada Ajit Singh aged 17, and Jujhar Singh aged 13 were killed in the Battle of Chamkaur in December 1704 against the Mughal army.

Gobind Singh's mother Mata Gujri and his two younger sons got separated from him after escaping the Mughal siege of Anandpur in December 1704; and were later arrested by the forces of Wazir Khan, the Mughal governor of Sirhind. The younger pair, called the 'Chotte Sahibzaade', along with their grandmother were imprisoned in an Open Tower (Thanda Burj), in chilling winter days. Around 26 and 27 December 1704, the younger sons, Sahibzada Fateh Singh aged 6 and Zorawar Singh aged 9, were offered a safe passage if they converted to Islam, which they refused; and subsequently, Wazir Khan ordered them to be bricked alive in the wall. Gujri fainted on hearing about her grandsons' death and died shortly thereafter.

His adopted son Zorawar Singh Palit whose real name is unknown died in 1708 near Chittorgarh Fort in a skirmish with local soldiers. According to Sainapati, Zorawar Singh Palit had managed to escape in the Battle of Chamkaur and later met the Guru in Rajputana after which he got in a minor scuffle at Chittorgarh and died.

According to Sikh historians, Guru Gobind Singh took the harsh news about the execution of his sons, Fateh Singh and Zorawar Singh, with stoic calm, and wrote "What use is it to put out a few sparks when you raise a mighty flame instead?".

Final days
Aurangzeb died in 1707, and immediately a succession struggle began between his sons who attacked each other. Guru Gobind Singh supported Bahadur Shah I in the Battle of Jajau by sending 200–300 Sikhs under Bhai Dharam Singh and later joining the battle themselves. According to Sikh sources it was Guru Gobind Singh who killed Azam Shah. The official successor Bahadur Shah invited Guru Gobind Singh with his army to meet him in person in the Deccan region of India for reconciliation. Guru Gobind Singh hoped to get Anandpur, his former stronghold back, and remained close to the imperial camp for nearly a year. His appeals for the restoration of his lands turned out to be ineffectual however as Bahadur Shah went on postponing any restoration to the status quo ante as he was not willing to offend either the Guru or the hill rajas.

Wazir Khan, a Mughal army commander and the Nawab of Sirhind, against whose army the Guru had fought several wars, commissioned two Afghans, Jamshed Khan, and Wasil Beg, to follow the Guru's army as it moved for the meeting with Bahadur Shah, and then assassinate the Guru. The two secretly pursued the Guru whose troops were in the Deccan area of India, and entered the camp when the Sikhs had been stationed near river Godavari for months. They gained access to the Guru and Jamshed Khan stabbed him two times resulting in a fatal wound at Nanded. Some scholars state that the assassin who killed Guru Gobind Singh may not have been sent by Wazir Khan, but was instead sent by the Mughal army that was staying nearby.

According to Senapati's Sri Gur Sobha, an early 18th-century writer, the fatal wounds of the Guru was one below his heart. The Guru fought back and killed the assassin, while the assassin's companion was killed by the Sikh guards as he tried to escape.

The Guru died of his wounds a few days later on 7 October 1708. His death fuelled a long and bitter war of the Sikhs with the Mughals.

According to the Bansavalinama by Kesar Singh Chibber written in 1768, the Guru's last words were, "The Granth is the Guru and it will bring you to Akal. The Guru is the Khalsa and the Khalsa is the Guru. The seat has been given to Sri Sahib Mata Devi. Love each other and expand the community. Follow the words of the Granth. The Sikh that follows Sikhi shall be with the Guru. Follow the conduct of the Guru. Always remain with Waheguru."

Dohra Mahalla Dasvan (10)
While it is generally believed that Guru Gobind Singh did not add any of his own compositions to the Guru Granth Sahib, there are some who argue that a single rhyming couplet, known as a Dohra, of the tenth Guru, titled Dohra Mahalla Dasvan (10), near the end of the scripture on page 1429 is the work of Guru Gobind Singh.

The composition in-question is as follows:

""According to Trilochan Singh, Guru Tegh Bahadur sent a letter in the form of a sloka to the young Gobind Das while incarcerated in Delhi by Aurangzeb, delivered personally to the young child by Bhai Uda and Pundit Kirpa Ram: "All human power has failed, Humanity groans in chains; Moral efforts are of no avail; Lord, save them O save With Thy Merciful aid, As Thou didst save The drowning elephant that prayed!" It was a test of the potential successor to the Guruship. Gobind Das, who was writing from Anandpur, replied with a dohra, which affirmed his readiness to succeed as the next Sikh guru and calmed any apprehensions that the Sikhs of the time felt about the prospect. Guru Tegh Bahadur knew his son was prepared to the take the reins and lead the Sikh community after his death. After reading his son's reply, Guru Tegh Bahadur sent a final message to his son: "The Word of God shall ever abide, The Saints shall ever survive; Guru Gobind’s glory shall ever remain; Few and rare are those O Nanak, Who contemplate His Name" This story is recorded in the account of Bhai Mani Singh written in his Sikhan di Bhagat Mal composition. The story is further recounted in other historical sources, such as Suraj Prakash, Mehma Prakash, and Kesar Singh Chibber's Bansavalinama. The SGPC, for unknown reasons, decided to not ascribe the dohra to Guru Gobind Singh when it standardized the Guru Granth Sahib, which it subsequently publishes without it, despite the dohra being ascribed to the tenth Guru in many 17th and 18th century manuscripts of the Guru Granth Sahib, including many of which bear a signature of the tenth Guru.

In popular culture
While Sikh Gurus are generally not portrayed on screen due to certain beliefs in Sikhism, a number of Indian films surrounding Guru Gobind Singh's life have been made. These include:
 * Sarbans Dani Guru Gobind Singh, a 1998 Indian Punjabi-language drama film directed by Ram Maheshwari. The film follows Guru's life but he is not directly portrayed by an actor.
 * Chaar Sahibzaade, a 2014 Indian computer-animated film by Harry Baweja. It is based on the sacrifices of the sons of Guru Gobind Singh – Ajit Singh, Jujhar Singh, Jorawar Singh, and Fateh Singh.
 * Chaar Sahibzaade: Rise of Banda Singh Bahadur, a 2016 Indian computer-animated film by Harry Baweja. It is a sequel to Chaar Sahibzaade and follows Baba Banda Singh Bahadur's fight against the Mughals under the guidance of Guru Gobind Singh.

title: Guru Gobind Singh


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Tel Hai

Tel Hai (תֵּל חַי, "Hill of Life") is a name of the former Jewish settlement in northern Galilee, the site of an early battle between Jews and Arabs heralding the growing civil conflict, and of a monument, tourist attraction, and a college. It is currently part of kibbutz Kfar Giladi.

The Battle of Tel Hai on 1 March 1920, which gave Tel Hai its fame, was significant, from a Jewish perspective, far beyond the small number of civil combatants on either side – mainly due to its influence on Israeli culture, both inspiring an enduring national myth and profoundly influencing the military of the Yishuv and political strategies over several decades.

In retrospect, it can be regarded as the first military engagement between Jews and Arabs, though at the time neither combatant side recognized it as such.

History
Tel Hai, initially named Talha (طلحة), was first settled in 1905 as an agricultural courtyard for six workers from a northern colony El Mutallah (Metula). The land for the outpost was purchased by Haim Kalvarisky, a clerk of the Jewish Colonization Association. In 1918, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Tel Hai was given its Hebrew name, and became a border outpost. The area was subsequently subject to intermittent border adjustments among the British and French colonial powers.

In 1919, the British relinquished the northern section of Upper Galilee containing Tel Hai, Metulla, Hamrah, and Kfar Giladi to French jurisdiction. The Zionist movement was greatly displeased with this, since it would have left the sources of the Jordan River outside the borders of British Mandatory Palestine, where the Zionist state they envisaged was to be established. Therefore, the few isolated settlements in this territory assumed a strategic value from the Zionist point of view. Still, there was a fierce debate among factions and leaders of the Yishuv, some of whom advocated letting Tel Hai and the other outposts hang on at all costs, while others regarded their situation as untenable and advocated withdrawing from them.

Arabs in this area at the time were not primarily involved in activities against the early Jewish militias, but rather in strongly opposing the imposition of the French Mandate of Syria, which they regarded as betrayal of the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence made during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule. In a letter dated 24 October 1915, Sir Henry McMahon, then His Majesty's High Commissioner in Egypt, promises the Sharif of Mecca, Husayn ibn Ali, to "recognize and support the independence of the Arabs within the territories proposed by him (Sharif of Mecca), the exact extent of which became a matter of dispute."

The Zionist militias in Tel Hai, headed by the Russian-born Jewish commander Joseph Trumpeldor wanted the area to be restored to British control which they hoped would eventually lead to its becoming part of a future Jewish state. However, as newcomers to the area recently arrived from Europe, they were suspected of being pro-French, which ultimately led to armed clashes.

In one notable exchange, on March 1, 1920, Shi'ite Arabs from Jabal Amil in southern Lebanon sought to search Tel Hai, however the Jews called for reinforcements from the kibbutz Kfar Giladi. Joseph Trumpeldor and ten men attempted to drive the Shi'ite militias away.

At the end of a verbal dispute, an armed confrontation did break out, in which six of the Tel Hai Jews were killed and the remaining Jews retreated, whereupon the place was burned. The total number of killed was 13 (5 Muslims and 8 Jews). The British and the French, at the behest of the Zionists, ultimately agreed this area of Upper Galilee was to be included in Mandatory Palestine. It was thus possible for Tel Hai to be resettled in 1921, though it did not become a viable independent community and in 1926 it was absorbed into the kibbutz of Kfar Giladi.

Tel Hai monument
A Jewish national monument in Upper Galilee, Israel commemorates the deaths of eight Jews (six men and two women), among them the Russian-born Jewish commander Joseph Trumpeldor, who fell in the above-detailed engagement on 1 March 1920. The resolute actions of Trumpeldor and his colleagues against a much larger Arab force inspired the Jews of Jerusalem. The memorial is known for a statue of a defiant lion representing Trumpeldor and his comrades. The city of Kiryat Shmona, literally Town of the Eight was named after them.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Tel Hai


text:
Hyperpolarization (biology)

Hyperpolarization is a change in a cell's membrane potential that makes it more negative. It is the opposite of a depolarization. It inhibits action potentials by increasing the stimulus required to move the membrane potential to the action potential threshold.

Hyperpolarization is often caused by efflux of K+ (a cation) through K+ channels, or influx of Cl– (an anion) through Cl– channels. On the other hand, influx of cations, e.g. Na+ through Na+ channels or Ca2+ through Ca2+ channels, inhibits hyperpolarization. If a cell has Na+ or Ca2+ currents at rest, then inhibition of those currents will also result in a hyperpolarization. This voltage-gated ion channel response is how the hyperpolarization state is achieved. In neurons, the cell enters a state of hyperpolarization immediately following the generation of an action potential. While hyperpolarized, the neuron is in a refractory period that lasts roughly 2 milliseconds, during which the neuron is unable to generate subsequent action potentials. Sodium-potassium ATPases redistribute K+ and Na+ ions until the membrane potential is back to its resting potential of around –70 millivolts, at which point the neuron is once again ready to transmit another action potential.

Voltage-gated ion channels and hyperpolarization
Voltage gated ion channels respond to changes in the membrane potential. Voltage gated potassium, chloride and sodium channels are key components in the generation of the action potential as well as hyper-polarization. These channels work by selecting an ion based on electrostatic attraction or repulsion allowing the ion to bind to the channel. This releases the water molecule attached to the channel and the ion is passed through the pore. Voltage gated sodium channels open in response to a stimulus and close again. This means the channel either is open or not, there is no part way open. Sometimes the channel closes but is able to be reopened right away, known as channel gating, or it can be closed without being able to be reopened right away, known as channel inactivation.

At resting potential, both the voltage gated sodium and potassium channels are closed but as the cell membrane becomes depolarized the voltage gated sodium channels begin to open up and the neuron begins to depolarize, creating a current feedback loop known as the Hodgkin cycle. However, potassium ions naturally move out of the cell and if the original depolarization event was not significant enough then the neuron does not generate an action potential. If all the sodium channels are open, however, then the neuron becomes ten times more permeable to sodium than potassium, quickly depolarizing the cell to a peak of +40 mV. At this level the sodium channels begin to inactivate and voltage gated potassium channels begin to open. This combination of closed sodium channels and open potassium channels leads to the neuron re-polarizing and becoming negative again. The neuron continues to re-polarize until the cell reaches ~ –75 mV, which is the equilibrium potential of potassium ions. This is the point at which the neuron is hyperpolarized, between –70 mV and –75 mV. After hyperpolarization the potassium channels close and the natural permeability of the neuron to sodium and potassium allows the neuron to return to its resting potential of –70 mV. During the refractory period, which is after hyper-polarization but before the neuron has returned to its resting potential the neuron is capable of triggering an action potential due to the sodium channels ability to be opened, however, because the neuron is more negative it becomes more difficult to reach the action potential threshold.

HCN channels are activated by hyperpolarization.

Recent research has shown that neuronal refractory periods can exceed 20 milliseconds where the relation between hyperpolarization and the neuronal refractory was questioned.

Experimental technique
Hyperpolarization is a change in membrane potential. Neuroscientists measure it using a technique known as patch clamping that allows them to record ion currents passing through individual channels. This is done using a glass micropipette, also called a patch pipette, with a 1 micrometer diameter. There is a small patch that contains a few ion channels and the rest is sealed off, making this the point of entry for the current. Using an amplifier and a voltage clamp, which is an electronic feedback circuit, allows the experimenter to maintain the membrane potential at a fixed point and the voltage clamp then measures tiny changes in current flow. The membrane currents giving rise to hyperpolarization are either an increase in outward current or a decrease in inward current.

Examples

 * 1) During the afterhyperpolarization period after an action potential, the membrane potential is more negative than when the cell is at the resting potential. In the figure to the right, this undershoot occurs at approximately 3 to 4 milliseconds (ms) on the time scale. The afterhyperpolarization is the time when the membrane potential is hyperpolarized relative to the resting potential.
 * 2) During the rising phase of an action potential, the membrane potential changes from negative to positive, a depolarization. In the figure, the rising phase is from approximately 1 to 2 ms on the graph. During the rising phase, once the membrane potential becomes positive, the membrane potential continues to depolarize (overshoot) until the peak of the action potential is reached at about +40 millivolts (mV). After the peak of the action potential, a hyperpolarization repolarizes the membrane potential to its resting value, first by making it less positive, until 0 mV is reached, and then by continuing to make it more negative. This repolarization occurs in the figure from approximately 2 to 3 ms on the time scale.

title: Hyperpolarization (biology)


text:
SGGS

SGGS may refer to:

 * Sri Guru Granth Sahib
 * St. George's Girls' School
 * Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute of Engineering and Technology
 * Stratford Girls' Grammar School

title: SGGS


text:
Aika

Aika may refer to:

Arts and media

 * Aika (album), a 1996 album by Finnish singer-songwriter Aki Sirkesalo
 * Agent Aika, a 1997 anime OVA produced by Bandai Visual and Studio Fantasia
 * AIKA Online, an MMORPG
 * Aikakone or Aika, a Finnish musical group
 * Aika, a character from the video game Skies of Arcadia
 * Aika, a 1984 Indian short film directed by Gulzar (lyricist)
 * "Aika", a song from the album Unified by Super8 & Tab

People

 * Aika (singer), Japanese singer/songwriter
 * Aika Ando (安藤 あいか), Japanese gravure idol and professional wrestler
 * Aika Hakoyama (born 1991), Japanese synchronized swimmer
 * Aika Kobayashi (born 1993), Japanese singer and voice actress
 * Aika Ota (多田 愛佳), is a former member of the Japanese idol group HKT48
 * Aika Mitsui (光井 愛佳), is a Japanese singer
 * Aika Hirota (廣田 あいか), is a Japanese YouTuber and singer
 * Aika Ōno (大野 愛果), is a Japanese singer and songwriter

Other uses

 * Aika, an ancient name of Troia (FG), Italy

title: Aika


text:
Richard Serra

Richard Serra (November 2, 1938 – March 26, 2024) was an American artist known for his large-scale abstract sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings, whose work has been primarily associated with Postminimalism. Described as "one of his era's greatest sculptors", Serra became notable for emphasizing the material qualities of his works and exploration of the relationship between the viewer, the work, and the site.

Serra pursued English literature at the University of California, Berkeley, before shifting to visual art. He graduated with a B.A. in English Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1961, where he met influential muralists Rico Lebrun and Howard Warshaw. Supporting himself by working in steel mills, Serra's early exposure to industrial materials influenced his artistic trajectory. He continued his education at Yale University, earning a B.A. in Art History and an M.F.A. in 1964. While in Paris on a Yale fellowship in 1964, he befriended composer Philip Glass and explored Constantin Brâncuși's studio, both of which had a strong influence on his work. His time in Europe also catalyzed his subsequent shift from painting to sculpture.

From the mid-1960s onward, particularly after his move to New York City in 1966, Serra worked to radicalize and extend the definition of sculpture beginning with his early experiments with rubber, neon, and lead, to his large-scale steel works. His early works in New York, such as To Lift from 1967 and Thirty-Five Feet of Lead Rolled Up from 1968, reflected his fascination with industrial materials and the physical properties of his chosen mediums. His large-scale works, both in urban and natural landscapes, have reshaped public interactions with art and, at times, were also a source of controversy, such as that caused by his Tilted Arc in Manhattan in 1981. Serra was married to artist Nancy Graves between 1965 and 1970, and Clara Weyergraf between 1981 and his death in 2024.

Early life and education
Serra was born in San Francisco, California, on November 2, 1938, to Tony and Gladys Serra – the second of three sons. His father was Spanish from Mallorca and his mother Gladys was the daughter of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants from Odessa. From a young age, he was encouraged to draw by his mother. The young Serra would carry a small notebook for his sketches and his mother would introduce her son as "Richard the artist." His father worked as a pipe fitter for a shipyard near San Francisco. Serra recounted a memory of a visit to the shipyard to see a boat launch when he was four years old. He watched as the ship transformed from an enormous weight to a buoyant, floating structure and noted that: "All the raw material that I needed is contained in the reserve of this memory." Serra's father, who was related to the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, later worked as a candy plant foreman.

Serra studied English literature at the University of California, Berkeley in 1957 before transferring to the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduating in 1961 with a BA in English Literature. In Santa Barbara, Serra met the muralists, Rico Lebrun and Howard Warshaw. Both were in the Art Department and took Serra under their wing. During this period, Serra worked in steel mills to earn a living, as he did at various times from ages 16–25.

Serra studied painting at Yale University and graduated with both a BA in Art History and an MFA in 1964. Fellow Yale alumni contemporaneous to Serra include Chuck Close, Rackstraw Downs, Nancy Graves, Brice Marden, and Robert Mangold. At Yale Serra met visiting artists from the New York School such as Philip Guston, Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt, and Frank Stella. Serra taught a color theory course during his last year at Yale and after graduating was asked to help proof Josef Albers' notable color theory book "Interaction of Color."

In 1964, Serra was awarded a one-year traveling fellowship from Yale and went to Paris where he met the composer Philip Glass who became a collaborator and long-time friend. In Paris, Serra spent time sketching in Constantin Brâncuși's studio, partially reconstructed inside the Musée national d'Art moderne on the Avenue du Président Wilson, allowing Serra to study Brâncuși's work, later drawing his own sculptural conclusions. An exact replica of Brâncuși's studio is now located opposite the Centre Pompidou. Serra spent the following year in Florence, Italy on a Fulbright Grant. In 1966 while still in Italy, Serra made a trip to the Prado Museum in Spain and saw Diego Velázquez's painting, "Las Meninas." The artist realized he would not surpass the skill of that painting and made the decision to move away from painting.

While still in Europe, Serra began experimenting with nontraditional sculptural material. He had his first one-person exhibition "Animal Habitats" at Galleria Salita, Rome. Exhibited there were assemblages made with live and stuffed animals which would later be referenced as early work from the Arte Povera movement.

Early work
Serra returned from Europe and moved to New York City in 1966. He continued his constructions using experimental materials such as rubber, latex, fiberglass, neon, and lead. His Belt Pieces were made with strips of rubber and hung on the wall using gravity as a forming device. Serra combined neon with continuous strips of rubber in his sculpture Belts (1966–67) referencing the serial abstraction in Jackson Pollock's Mural (1963.) Around that time Serra wrote Verb List (1967) a list of transitive verbs (i.e. cast, roll, tear, prop, etc.) which he used as directives for his sculptures. To Lift (1967), and Thirty-Five Feet of Lead Rolled Up (1968), Splash Piece (1968), and Casting (1969), were some of the action-based works with origins in the verb list. Serra used lead in many of his constructs because of its adaptability. Lead is malleable enough to be rolled, folded, ripped, and melted. With To Lift (1967) Serra lifted a 10-foot (3 m) sheet of rubber off the ground making a free-standing form; with Thirty-five Feet of Lead Rolled Up (1968), Serra, with the help of Philip Glass, unrolled and rolled a sheet of lead as tightly as they could.

In 1968 Serra was included in the group exhibition "Nine at Castelli" at Castelli Warehouse in New York where he showed Prop (1968), Scatter Piece (1968), and made Splashing (1968) by throwing molten lead against the angle of the floor and wall. In 1969 his piece Casting was included in the exhibition Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In Casting the artist again threw molten lead against the angle of the floor and wall. He then pulled the casting made from the hardened lead away from the wall and repeated the action of splashing and casting creating a series of free-standing forms.

"To prop" is another transitive verb from Serra's "Verb List" utilized by the artist for a series assemblages of lead plates and poles dependent on leaning and gravity as a force to stay upright. Serra's early Prop Pieces such as Prop (1968) relied mainly on the wall as a support. Serra wanted to move away from the wall to remove what he thought was a pictorial convention. In 1969 he propped four lead plates up on the floor like a house of cards. The sculpture One Ton Prop: House of Cards (1969) weighed 1 ton and the four plates were self-supporting.

Another pivotal moment for Serra occurred in 1969 when he was commissioned by the artist Jasper Johns to make a Splash Piece in Johns's studio. While Serra heated the lead plates to splash against the wall, he took one of the larger plates and set it in the corner where it stood on its own. Serra's break into space followed shortly after with the sculpture Strike: To Roberta and Rudy (1969–71). Serra wedged an 8 by 24-foot (2.4 × 7.3 m) plate of steel into a corner and divided the room into two equal spaces. The work invited the viewer to walk around the sculpture, shifting the viewer's perception of the room as they walked.

Serra first recognized the potential of working in large scale with his Skullcracker Series made during the exhibition, "Art and Technology," at LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) in 1969. He spent ten weeks building a number of ephemeral stacked steel pieces at the Kaiser Steelyard. Using a crane to explore the principles of counterbalance and gravity, the stacks were as tall as 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 m) high and weighed between 60 and 70 tons (54.4 and 63.5 t). They were knocked down by the steel workers at the end of each day. The scale of the stacks allowed Serra to begin to think of his work outside the confines of gallery and museum spaces.

Landscape works
In 1970 Serra received a Guggenheim Fellowship and traveled to Japan. His first outdoor sculptures, To Encircle Base Plate (Hexagram) (1970) and Sugi Tree (1970), were both installed in Ueno Park as part of the "Tokyo Biennale."

While in Japan, Serra spent most of his time studying the Zen gardens and temples of the Myoshin-ji in Kyoto. The layout of the gardens revealed the landscape as a total field that can only be experienced by walking. The gardens changed Serra's way of seeing space in relation to time. Upon returning to the United States he built his first site-specific outdoor work: To Encircle Base Plate Hexagram, Right Angles Inverted (1970). Here Serra embedded two semi-circular steel flanges, forming a ring 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter, into the surface of 183rd Street in the Bronx. One semi-circle measured 1 inch (25.4 mm) wide and the second, 8 inches wide (203.2 mm). The work was visible from two perspectives: either when the viewer came directly upon it or from above on a stairway overlooking the street.

Throughout the 1970s Serra continued to make outdoor site-specific sculpture for urban areas and landscapes Serra's was interested in the topology of landscape and how one relates to it through movement, space, and time. His first landscape work was made in late 1970 when Serra was commissioned by the art patrons Joseph and Emily Rauh Pulitzer to build a sculpture on their property outside St. Louis, Missouri. Pulitzer Piece: Stepped Elevation (1970–71) was Serra's first large-scale landscape work. Three plates measuring 5 feet (1.5 m) high by 40 to 50 feet (12 to 15 m) long were placed across approximately 3 acres (12 140 m2). The placement of the plates was determined by the fall of the landscape. Each plate was impaled into the ground far enough until its rise was 5 feet (1.5 m). Serra's intention was for the plates to act as cuts in the landscape that function as surrogate horizons as viewers walked amongst them.

Shift (1970–72), Serra's second endeavor in the landscape, was built in a field owned by the collector Roger Davidson in King City, Ontario. The sculpture is composed of six rectilinear concrete sections placed along the sloping landscape. In 2013 Shift was designated a Heritage Site under the Ontario Heritage Act. Shift, like Pulitzer Prizes pieces, was based on the elevational fall of the land over a given distance. The top edges of the plates function as a horizon being placed into specific elevational intervals as you walk the entire field. Serra's subsequent site-specific works in landscape continued to explore the topography of the land and how the sculpture relates to this topography by way of movement, meditation, and perception of the viewer. Among the most notable of the landscape works are Porten i Slugten (1983–86) at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; Afangar (Stations, Stops on the Road, To Stop and Look: Forward and Back, To Take It All In) (1990) on Videy Island, Iceland; Schunnemunk Fork (1991) in Storm King Art Center, New York; Snake Eyes and Box Cars (1993) in Sonoma County, California; Te Tuhirangi Contour (2000–2) in Kaipara, New Zealand; and East-West/West-East (2014) in Qatar.

The sculpture Porten i Slugten (1983–86) was commissioned for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark. After walking the museum grounds, Serra chose a ravine that runs towards the Kattegat Sea as the site for his sculpture. The ravine was the only area on the grounds that had not been landscaped. Two plates were set at an angle to each other at the end of a sloping stretch of path which fronts the ravine. The plates function in their location like a gate which opens as the viewer walks down the path towards the sea. Seen from the center of a bridge, which crosses the ravine and leads to the museum, the two plates form a single plane as if the gate had closed. As you walk down from the museum to the ocean below, the plates appear to have a continuous swinging motion. In 1988 Serra was invited by the National Gallery of Iceland to build a work. Serra chose Videy Island as the site for Afangar (Stations, Stops on the Road, To Stop and Look: Forward and Back, To Take It All In) (1990). The sculpture consists of nine pairs of basalt columns (a material indigenous to Iceland) and placed along the periphery of Vesturey in the west part of the country. All nine locations share the same elevations in that the stones of each pair are situated at an elevation of 9 and 10 meters, respectively. Each set of stones is level at the top. All stones at the higher elevation measure 3 meters; all stones at the lower elevation measure 4 meters. Because of the variance of topography, the stones in a set are sometimes closer together, sometimes further apart. The rise and fall of Videy Island and the surrounding landscape is seen against the fixed measure of the standing stones. The stones are visible along the horizon of the island and orient the viewer against the rise and fall of the surrounding landscape.

Te Tuhirangi Contour (2000–2) is located on vast open pasture on Gibbs Farm in Kaipara, New Zealand. The sculpture stands 20 feet (6 m) high and spans 844 feet (257 m) as one continuous contour that follows the rolling hills, expansion, and contraction of the landscape. The sculpture's elevation is perpendicular to the fall of the land.

East-West/West-East (2014), located on an east–west axis in the Brouq Nature Reserve in Qatar, was commissioned by Sheika al-Mayassa al-Thani of Qatar. It consists of four steel plates either 54$3⁄4$ or 48$1⁄2$ feet (16.7 or 14.8 m) high. The plates are placed at irregular intervals in a valley that runs between two gypsum plateaus. The plates are level to each other and the elevation of the adjacent plateaus. The work spans less than a kilometer and all plates are visible from either end.

Urban works
In the landscape, the sculptural elements draw the viewer's attention to the topology of the land as its walked. Serra's site-specific Urban sculptures focus the viewer's attention on the sculpture itself. Their locations often more accessible to the public than the landscape works, invite the viewer to walk inside, pass through and move around them. Because of the confines of Urban architecture, sculptures such as Sight Point (1972–75) at the Stedelijk Museum, The Netherlands; Terminal (1977) in Bochum, Germany; T.W.U. (1980) at the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany; Fulcrum (1986–87), installed in Broadgate, London; Exchange (1996) outside the City of Luxembourg; or 7 (2011) on a pier in Doha, Qatar, reflect the verticality of their surrounding architecture. Outdoor sculptures like St. John's Rotary Arc (1980) temporarily installed outside the Holland Tunnel entrance in New York City; Tilted Arc (1981) installed and later removed from New York City's Federal Plaza; Clara-Clara (1983), temporarily installed at Tuileries, Place de la Concorde, Paris; Berlin Junction (1987) installed outside the Berlin Philharmonic; are all curved forms or arcs that open and close depending on the direction the viewer takes walking around them.

Sight Point (1972–75) was Serra's first vertical Urban work and a continuation of the balance and counterbalance principles of his earlier work Prop. Sight Point stands outside the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, consisting of three vertical steel plates 10 feet (3 m) wide and 40 feet (12 m) high that lean in at an angle and forming a triangular space on the ground with three openings that can be walked through. Once inside the viewer can look up and see the sky framed by the triangular shape made by the leaning plates.

Another vertical sculpture, Terminal (1977), was conceived for "Documenta VI" in 1977. It was permanently installed on a traffic island between the street car tracks in front of a train station in Bochum, Germany. Serra chose the site because of its proximity to a high traffic area. Exchange (1996), sited in a vehicular round-about on top of a highway tunnel, made of seven trapezoidal plates. The sculpture stands 60 feet (18 m) high and can be seen by drivers as they enter and leave the City of Luxembourg.

In 1980 Serra installed two sculptures, with support of the Public Art Fund, in New York City. T.W.U. (1980) and St. John's Rotary Arc (1980) were each placed in areas where traffic and people converged. T.W.U, a vertical sculpture consisting of three vertical plates, each 36 feet (11 m) high, was installed at a subway entrance near West Broadway between Leonard and Franklin Streets. The sculpture is now permanently installed outside the Deichterhallen, Hamburg, Germany. St. John's Rotary Arc, one of Serra's earliest curved sculptures, was 12 feet (3.6 m) high and spanned 180 feet (55 m). From 1980 to 1988 the site-specific sculpture was installed on the rotary at the entrance and exit to the Holland Tunnel.

The following year in 1981, a second site-specific curved sculpture Tilted Arc (1981) was installed in New York City's Federal Plaza. Commissioned by the U.S. General Services Administration's Art-in-Architecture Program following a rigorous selection process, the sculpture's arc spanned 120 feet (36 m) and 12 feet (3.6 m) high. The sculpture was a curve that tilted and leaned away from its base. It was anchored into the plaza at both ends so that the center of the sculpture was raised. Serra's intention for the sculpture was to draw pedestrians' attention to the sculpture as they crossed the plaza. Tilted Arc was met with resistance by workers in the Federal building. An eight-year campaign to remove the sculpture ensued and Tilted Arc was ultimately removed on March 15, 1989. In Serra's defense to preserve the sculpture he stated "To remove Tilted Arc, therefore, is to destroy it", advocating an art-for art's sake mantra of site-specific artworks. Following the hearing and GSA's decision, Serra responded that he would deny his authorship of Tilted Arc if it were relocated. and would consider it a "derivative work". The case of Tilted Arc continues to highlight the tension surrounding the nature of public art and its intended audience.

Gallery works
Serra's work has enjoyed numerous exhibitions in gallery and museum settings. His site-specific gallery installations are sometimes used to test ideas. Serra's was at the Leo Castelli Warehouse, New York City in 1969. There he exhibited ten lead Prop Pieces, a Scatter Piece: Cutting Device: Base Plate Measure (1969), and a Splash Piece: Splashing with Four Molds (To Eva Hesse) (1969).

Following his process-based works of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Serra began to solely use rolled or forged steel in his sculpture. Berlin Block (for Charlie Chaplin) (1977) was Serra's first forged sculpture. Made for the plaza outside the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the sculpture weighs 70 tons. His other forged sculptures include Elevation for Mies (1985–88) at Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, Germany; Philibert et Marguerite (1985), in the Musee de Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse, France; Weight and Measure (1992), a temporary site-specific installation at the Tate Gallery, London; Santa Fe Depot (2004), in the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; and Equal (2015) in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Serra's most known series of sculpture using rolled steel plates are the Torqued Ellipses. In 1991 Serra visited Borromini's Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome and mistook the ovals of the dome and the floor to be offset from one another. He thought to make a sculpture in this torqued form. Serra constructed models of this perceived form in his studio by cutting two ellipse-shaped pieces of wood and nailing a dowel between them. He then turned the ellipses so they were at a right angle to one another and wrapped a sheet of lead around the form. After making a template from the models Serra worked with an engineer to fabricate the sculptures. In total there are seven Torqued Ellipses and four Double Torqued Ellipses (an ellipse inside of an ellipse) dated between 1996 and 2004. Each sculpture has a different degree or torque and measures up to 13 feet (3.9 m) high. The sculptures all have an opening so that they can be walked through and around. Three Torqued Ellipses are on permanent view at Dia Beacon, New York. In 2005 "The Matter of Time", a commissioned installation, opened at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain. Consisting of eight sculptures spanning a decade from 1994 to 2005, "The Matter of Time" highlights the evolution of Serra's sculptural forms. Serra chose to include five sculptures derived from the initial torqued ellipse: one single, one double ellipse, and three torqued spirals. The Torqued Spirals followed after the Double Torqued Ellipses when Serra decided to connect a double ellipses into one wound form that can be entered and walked through. The remaining sculptures in "The Matter of Time" are one closed (Blind Spot Reversed) and one open (Between the Torus and the Sphere) torus and spherical sculpture; and Snake: made of three parts, each comprising two identical conical sections inverted relative to each other and spanning 104 feet (31.7 m) overall. The sculptures are organized by Serra with intention. The direction which the viewer moves through the space creates a sensation of varying scale and proportion, and an awareness to the passing of time.

In 2008 Serra participated in Monumenta, an annual exhibition held in Paris's Grand Palais featuring a single artist. For Monumenta Serra installed a single sculpture, Promenade (2008), consisting of five plates, each 55 feet (16.8 m) tall and 13 feet (4 m) wide, placed 100 feet (30 m) apart from one another across the cavernous interior of the Grand Palais. Overall, the sculpture spanned 656 feet (200 m). The plates were not placed in a line but stood side to side off the Grand Palais's center axis. They tilted either left or right, leaned either toward or away from another, and the viewer as they strolled around them.

The sculpture Equal (2015), in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, consists of eight forged blocks. Each block measures 5 by 5 $1/2$ by 6 feet (1.5 × 1.7 × 1.8 m) and weighs 40 tons. The blocks are stacked in pairs and positioned on their longer or shorter sides so that each stack measures 11 feet (3.4 m) tall. When walking amongst the four stacks the viewer becomes aware of their own sense of weight, balance, and gravity in relation to the sculptures.

Four Rounds: Equal Weight, Unequal Measure (2017), consisting of four 82-ton (74 t) forged cylinders of varying dimensions is permanently installed at Glenstone in Potomac, Maryland. The sculpture is installed within a building designed by Thomas Phifer of Thomas Phifer and Partners, in collaboration with Serra to highlight the sculpture's mass within the confines of the building's interior.

Drawings
Drawing was integral to Serra's practice. Serra made drawings on large sheets of canvas or handmade paper. They include horizontal or vertical compositions; constructions of overlapping sheets; or line drawings. His drawings were primarily done in paintstick, lithographic crayon, or charcoal and are always black. Serra experiments with different techniques and tools to manipulate and apply the medium. He often pushes the conventions of drawing towards a tactile, phenomenological experience of movement, time and space. The artist said that his drawing practice is involved with "repetition, knowing there's no possibility of repeating, knowing that it's going to yield something different each time."

Following his break into space with sculptures like Strike: To Roberta and Rudy (1969–71), Serra became interested in redefining architectural space with drawing as well. In 1974 Serra started to make his Installation Drawings—large-scale site-specific sheets of canvas completely covered in paintstick and stapled to the wall. The Installation Drawings cover the wall, or walls, of a given space. Shafrazi and Zadikians were two of Serra's first Installation Drawings. Both were exhibited at Leo Castelli Gallery, New York City in 1974 and measured approximately 10 $1/2$ feet (3.2 m) high and 18 feet (5.5 m) wide overall. Serra continued to make Installation Drawing throughout his career. Other notable drawing series include: Diptychs (1989); Dead Weight (1991–92); Weight and Measure (1993–94); Videy Afangar (1989–91); Rounds (1996–97); out-of-rounds (1999–2000); Line Drawings (2000–02); Solids (2008); Greenpoint Rounds (2009); Elevational Weights (2010); Rifts (2011–18); Transparencies (2011–13); Horizontal Reversals (2014) Rambles (2015–16); Composites (2016); Horizontals and Verticals (2016–17); and Orchard Street (2018).

National and international survey exhibitions of Serra's drawings have included Richard Serra: Tekeningen/Drawings 1971–1977 at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam in 1978; Richard Serra: Tekeningen/Drawings at the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastrict in 1990; Richard Serra Drawings: A Retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Menil Collection, Houston from 2011 to 2012; and Richard Serra: Drawings 2015–2017: Rambles, Composites, Rotterdam Verticals, Rotterdam Horizontals, Rifts at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 2017.

Prints
Serra began making prints in 1972. Working closely with Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles, Serra developed unconventional printing techniques. He made over 200 printed works and like his sculpture and drawing, his prints reflect an interest in process, scale, and experimentation with material.

His early lithographs starting in 1972 include the prints Circuit; Balance; Eight by Eight; or 183rd & Webster Avenue, each titled after a sculpture created around the same time. In 1981 Serra produced his first lithograph series comprising seven editions, titled: Sketch #1 through Sketch #7. That same year Serra begin to make larger-scale prints such as Malcolm X; Goslar, or The Moral Majority Sucks.

After pushing lithography to its limit, Serra began to work with silkscreen to produce a unique surface in his prints. He did so by first applying a layer of ink onto the paper. He then would apply a layer of paint stick through the second screen creating a saturated and textured surface.

Serra continued to work this his silkscreen technique, sometimes combining it with etching and aquatint. His print series include: Videy Afanger (1991); Hreppholer (1991); WM (1996); Rounds (1999); Venice Notebook (2001); Between the Torus and the Sphere (2006); Paths and Edges (2007); Level (2008); Junction (2010); Reversal (2015); Elevational Weight (2016); Equal (2018); and (?) (2019).

Films and video works
From 1968 to 1979 Serra made a collection of films and videos. Although he began working with sculpture and film at the same time, Serra recognized the different material capacities of each and did not extend sculptural problems into his films and videos. Serra collaborated with several artists including Joan Jonas, Nancy Holt, and Robert Fiore, on his films and videos. His first films, Hand Catching Lead (1968), Hands Scraping (1968) and Hand Tied (1968) involve a series of actions: a hand tries to catch falling lead; pairs of hands move lead shavings; and bound hands untie themselves.

A later film Railroad Turnbridge (1976) frames the surrounding landscape of the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, as the bridge turns. Steelmill/Stahwerk (1979), made in collaboration with the art historian Clara Weyergraf is divided in two parts. The first part is made up of interviews of German steel-factory workers about their work. The second part captures the forging of Serra's sculpture Berlin Block (for Charlie Chaplin).

Survey exhibitions and screenings of his films have been held at the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland in 2017; Anthology Film Archives, New York, October 17–23, 2019; and Harvard Film Archive, January 27 – February 9, 2020. In 2019, Serra donated his entire film and video works to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Exhibitions
Serra's first solo exhibition was in 1966 at Galleria Salita in Rome, Italy. His first solo exhibition in the U.S. was at the Leo Castelli Warehouse, New York in 1969. His first solo museum exhibition was held at the Pasadena Art Museum in California in 1970.

The first retrospective of his work was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1986. A second retrospective was held at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2007.

The first survey exhibition of his drawings was held at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1977 and traveled to the Kunsthalle Tübingen in 1978. A second retrospective of drawings was presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and The Menil Collection, Houston from 2011 to 2012. An overview of the artist's work in film and video was on view at the Kunstmuseum Basel, in 2017.

Serra enjoyed solo exhibitions at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 1978; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1980; Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1983–1984; Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, 1985; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1986 and 2007; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, 1986; Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History, Münster, 1987; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, 1987; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1988; Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 1990; Kunsthaus Zürich, 1990; CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, 1990; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1992; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 1992; Dia Center for the Arts, New York, 1997; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1998–1999; Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, 1997–1998; Trajan's Market, Rome, 1999–2000; Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis, 2003; National Archaeological Museum, Naples, 2004; and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, in 2017.

Collections
Serra's work is included in many museums and public collections around the world. Selected museum collections which own his work include The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Art Institute of Chicago; Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Centre Cultural Fundació La Caixa, Barcelona; Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; Dia Art Foundation, New York; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and New York; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland.

Selected public collections which hold his work include City of Bochum, Germany; City of Chicago, Public Art Collection; City of Goslar, Germany; City of Hamburg, Germany; City of St. Louis, Missouri; City of Tokyo, Japan; City of Berlin, Germany; City of Paris, France; Collection City of Reykjavík, Iceland.

Personal life
Richard Serra moved to New York City in 1966. He bought a house in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, in 1970 and spent summers working there. Serra married art historian Clara Weyergraf in 1981. As of 2019, Serra maintained a home in Manhattan and studios in Nova Scotia and the North Fork of Long Island.

Serra died from pneumonia at his home in Orient, New York, on March 26, 2024, at the age of 85.

Awards
Serra was the recipient of many notable prizes and awards, including Fulbright Grant (1965–66); Guggenheim Fellowship (1970); République Française, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1985 and 1991); Japan Arts Association, Tokyo Praemium Imperiale  (1994); a Leone d'Oro for lifetime achievement, Venice Biennale, Italy (2001); American Academy of Arts and Letters (2001); Orden pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste, Federal Republic of Germany (2002); Orden de las Artes y las Letras de España, Spain (2008); The National Arts Award: Lifetime Achievement Award (bestowed by Americans for the Arts 2014); Hermitage Museum Foundation's Award for Lifetime Contributions to the World of Art (2014); Chevalier de l'Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur, Republic of France (2015); Landesmuseum Wiesbaden Alexej-von-Jawlensky-Preis (2017); and a J. Paul Getty Medal (2018).

Writings and interviews
Gathered in the following three anthologies is a comprehensive collection of writings by, and interviews with, the artist:
 * Includes writings by the artist and interviews by Friedrich Teja Bach, Liza Béar, Patricia E. Bickers, Lizzie Borden, Lynne Cooke, Douglas Crimp, Peter Eisenman, Mark Francis, Bernard Lamarche-Vadel, Annette Michelson, Robert C. Morgan, Alfred Pacquement, Brenda Richardson, Mark Rosenthal, Nicholas Serota, David Sylvester, and Clara Weyergraf.
 * Written and compiled by Richard Serra in collaboration with Clara Weyergraf. Includes interviews by Friedrich Teja Bach, Liza Béar, Lizzie Borden, Douglas Crimp, Bernard Lamarche-Vadel, and Clara Weyergraf.
 * German translation of the 1980 Hudson River Museum publication with additional contributions by Thomas Beller, Peter Eisenman, Philip Glass, Gerard Hovagymyan, Robert C. Morgan, Alfred Pacquement, Brenda Richardson, and Harald Szeemann.

Actor
Serra plays an architect who is a third level Mason in artist and filmmaker Matthew Barney's Cremaster 3 from the director's five-part Cremaster Cycle.

Selected writing
All solely by Richard Serra unless indicated otherwise.

 * "Play it Again, Sam." Arts Magazine 44, no. 4 (February 1970), pp. 24–27.
 * "Verb List, 1967–68." First published in Avalanche [New York], no. 2 (Winter 1971), pp. 20–21.
 * "Skullcracker Stacking Series." In Scott, Gail R., A Report on the Art & Technology Program of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art 1967–1971, pp. 299–300. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1971.
 * Jackson, Ward, and Richard Serra. "Richard Serra." Art Now: New York 3, no. 3 (September 1971), p. 4.
 * Serra, Richard. "Statements." Artforum 10, no. 1 (September 1971), p. 64.
 * "On Frame, on Color-Aid." Artforum 10, no. 1 (September 1971), p. 64.
 * Jonas, Joan, and Richard Serra. "Paul Revere." Artforum 10, no. 1 (September 1971), pp. 65–67.
 * Serra, Richard, and Rosalind Krauss, ed. "Shift." Arts Magazine 47, no. 6 (April 1973), pp. 49–55.
 * Serra, Richard, and Clara Weyergraf. "St. John's Rotary Arc." Artforum 19, no. 1 (September 1980), pp. 52–55.
 * "Notes from Sight Point Road." Originally published in Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal, no. 19 (1982), pp. 172–81. Edited and printed as "Extended Notes from Sight Point Road" in Richard Serra: Neuere Skulpturen in Europa 1977–1985 (Eine Auswahl)/Recent Sculpture in Europe 1977–1985 (Selected), pp. 11–15.
 * "Letter from Richard Serra to President Ronald Reagan" [in Portuguese and English]. Lo Spazio Umano [Portugal], no. 2 (April–July 1985), pp. 89–92. Bilingual, Portuguese and English.
 * "Serra Writes the President." Art & Artists 14, no. 3 (May–June 1985), special supplement, pp. 3, 22.
 * "Notes on Drawing." First published in Güse, Ernst-Gerhard, ed. Richard Serra, pp. 66–68. New York: Rizzoli, 1988.
 * "Weight." In Richard Serra: 10 Sculptures for the Van Abbe, pp. 10–12. Exh. cat. Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1988. Bilingual in Dutch and English.
 * "'Tilted Arc'—A Precedent?" [letter to the editor]. The New York Times, April 30, 1989, sec. 2, p. 5.
 * "'Tilted Arc' Destroyed." Art in America 77, no. 5 (May 1989), pp. 34–47, cover.
 * "Artists Have Rights to Their Works." Des Moines Sunday Register, October 29, 1989, pp. 3C.
 * "The Yale Lecture, January 1990." Kunst & Museumjournaal [Amsterdam: English edition] 1, no. 6 (1990), pp. 23–33.
 * "Afangar Series." Open City, no. 2 (1993), pp. 101–7.
 * "Donald Judd, 1928-1994" [eulogy. Parkett, nos. 40–41 (1994), pp. 176–79.
 * "Basel, 18. January 1994/Basel, January 18, 1994." In Martin Schwander, ed., Richard Serra: Intersection Basel, pp. 72–79. Basel: Christoph Merian Verlag and Düsseldorf: Richter Verlag, 1996. ISBN 9783928762526..
 * "Notes on The Matter of Time." In Richard Serra: The Matter of Time, p. 141. Bilbao: Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, and Göttingen: Steidl Verlag, 2005. ISBN 9788495216434..
 * "Notes on The Matter of Time." In Richard Serra: The Matter of Time, p. 141. Bilbao: Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, and Göttingen: Steidl Verlag, 2005. ISBN 9788495216434..

Selected interviews

 * Bear, Liza. "Document: Spin Out '72–'73 for Bob Smithson" [interview with the artist, October 30, 1973]. Avalanche[New York], no. 8 (Summer/Fall 1973), pp. 14–15.
 * Bear, Liza. "Prisoner's Dilemma" [interview with the artist, January 27, 1974]. Avalanche [New York], no. 9 (May–June 1974), pp. 26–28.
 * Bear, Liza. "Richard Serra: Sight Point '71-75/Delineator '74–76" [radio interview, February 23, 1976]. First published in Art in America 64, no. 3 (May–June 1976), pp. 82–86.
 * Borden, Lizzie. "Richard Serra Interviewed by Lizzie Borden." In Richard Serra: Tekeningen/Drawings 1971–1977, pp. 9–14. Exh. cat. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1977.
 * Michelson, Annette, and Clara Weyergraf. "Richard Serra's Films: An Interview." October, no. 10 (Fall 1979), pp. 68–104.
 * Bear, Liza. "Interview" [March 30, 1976]. First published in Richard Serra: Interviews, Etc. 1970–1980, pp. 65–73.Yonkers, New York: The Hudson River Museum, 1980.
 * Bach, Friedrich Teja. "Interview: Richard Serra & Friedrich Teja Bach" [March 14, 1975]. In Richard Serra: Interviews, Etc. 1970–1980, pp. 45–55. Yonkers, New York: The Hudson River Museum, 1980.
 * Lamarche-Vadel, Bernard. "Entretien avec Richard Serra" [interview with the artist, May 1980]. First published in Artistes [Paris], no. 7 (January- February 1981), pp. 24–29.
 * Crimp, Douglas. "Richard Serra's Urban Sculpture: An Interview" [July 1980]. Arts Magazine 55, no. 3 (November 1980), pp. 118–24.
 * Pacquement, Alfred. "Interview." In Richard Serra: Writings, Interviews, pp. 157–64. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994.
 * Szeemann, Harold. "On the Bridge." In Richard Serra: "Maillart Extended," pp. 20–25. Bern: Benteli Verlag, 1989. Trilingual, German, French, and English.
 * Serota, Nicholas, and David Sylvester. "Interview with the artist" [May 27, 1992]. In Richard Serra: Weight and Measure, pp. 9–25. Exh. cat. Tate Gallery, London. Düsseldorf: Richter Verlag, 1992.
 * Cooke, Lynne and Michael Govan. "Interview with Richard Serra" [Cape Breton, July 10, 1997]. In Richard Serra: Torqued Ellipses, pp. 11–31. Exh. cat. Dia Center for the Arts, New York, 1997.
 * Sylvester, David. "Interview." In Russell Ferguson, Anthony McCall, and Clara Weyergraf-Serra, eds. Richard Serra: Sculpture 1985–1998, pp. 187–206. Exh. cat. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Göttingen: Steidl Verlag, 1998.
 * Waters, John. "Art Profile: Richard Serra." Vogue Hommes International (Spring-Summer 2002), pp. 116–24.
 * Peyser, Jonathan. "Declaring, Defining, and Dividing Space: Conversation with Richard Serra." Sculpture 21, no. 8 (October 2002), pp. 28–35.
 * Foster, Hal. "Richard Serra in Conversation with Hal Foster." In Richard Serra: The Matter of Time, pp. 23–41. Bilbao: Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, and Göttingen: Steidl Verlag, 2005.
 * Bui, Phong. "In Conversation: Richard Serra with Phong Bui", The Brooklyn Rail, June 2006, pp. 22–24. Reprinted in Richard Serra: Rolled and Forged, pp. 5–15. Exh. cat. Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2006.
 * McShine, Kynaston. "A Conversation About Work with Richard Serra". In Richard Serra: Forty Years, pp. 15–40. Exh. cat. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2007.
 * Pacquement, Alfred. "Richard Serra: Grand Seigneur du Grand Palais." In Richard Serra: Monumenta 2008/Grand Palais, pp. 4–11. Boulogne: Beaux Arts Éditions, 2008.
 * Storr, Robert. "Richard Serra Goes Public in Paris." Art Press [Paris], no. 345 (May 2008), pp. 28–35.
 * Garrels, Gary. "An Interview with Richard Serra." In Richard Serra: Drawing: A Retrospective, pp. 65–83. Exh. cat. The Menil Collection, Houston, 2011.
 * Enright, Robert. "The Weight of History: Richard Serra's Sculpture and Drawings" [interview with the artist]. Border Crossings 36, no. 4 (December 2017 – February 2018), pp. 30–43.
 * Serra, Richard, and Hal Foster. "Conversations About Sculpture". New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018.
 * Serra, Richard, and Hal Foster. "Conversations About Sculpture". New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018.

title: Richard Serra