Richard Serra's formative years as an artist during the 1950s were not marked by the large-scale sculptural works he is renowned for today, but rather by his early experiences and influences that would shape his artistic trajectory. Born in 1938 in San Francisco, California, Serra's initial exposure to art came from spending time in the shipyards where his father worked, which sparked his interest in the industrial materials that would later define his practice (The Art Story) (Encyclopedia Britannica). During the 1950s, Serra was still a young man, and his artistic career had not yet begun in earnest. It wasn't until the late 1960s and early 1970s that Serra started creating the monumental steel sculptures for which he is now famous. His time at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara, where he studied English literature before transferring to art, laid the groundwork for his later exploration into sculpture (TheCollector) (Encyclopedia Britannica). After graduating, Serra continued his studies at Yale University, where he was exposed to the works of influential artists and began his own experimental forays into art. It was only after his education, when he moved to New York and immersed himself in the city's avant-garde scene, that Serra's iconic style began to emerge. By the late 1960s, Serra had started to experiment with materials like lead, fiberglass, and rubber, creating works that pushed the boundaries of sculpture and explored the relationship between artwork, site, and viewer (TheCollector) (RTF | Rethinking The Future). Therefore, while Richard Serra's artistic output in the 1950s was still in a nascent stage, the period was crucial for the development of his understanding of materials and space—elements that would become central to his later work. His experiences during these early years, from working in steel mills to his formal art education and early experiments in sculpture, were instrumental in shaping his approach to art and establishing him as one of the foremost sculptors of his generation.