Interpretation
Industrial yet sensual, this massive sculpture invites visitors to walk through its steel curves in order to experience art, space, and environment in a physical way. The title, taken from an Isaiah Berlin essay, quotes the Greek poet Archilochus: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one great thing." Serra extends this proposition as a question to students—will you be a fox or a hedgehog?
Information
- Title
- The Hedgehog and the Fox
- Object Number
- PP618
- Maker
- Richard Serra
- Medium
- Cor-Ten steel
- Dates
- 2000
- Dimensions
- 6 plates, overall dimensions approximately 13' 6" high x 84' length x 26' width
- Credit Line
- Princeton University, gift of Peter T. Joseph, Class of 1972 and Graduate School Class of 1973, in honor of his children, Danielle and Nicholas
- Culture
- American
- Signatures
- Unsigned
- Materials
- Jane McCarthy and Laurily K. Epstein, A guide to the sculpture parks and gardens of America, (New York, NY: Michael Kesend Pub., 1996).
- Karin Dienst, ed., Sculpture of Princeton University: including works from the John B. Putnam Jr. Memorial Collection, (Princeton, NJ: Published by the Office of Communications, in association with the Princeton University Art Museum, 2004)., 28–29
- John Wilmerding et al., American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum: volume 1: drawings and watercolors, (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 9, fig. 5
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