Both texts talk about the placement of work. Richard Serra talks about his placement of sculpture not being in the studio but being site location based. Leo Steinberg talks about horizontal and vertical placement of work.

‘The Yale Lecture’ was written by Richard Serra in 1990. Serra talks about his practice and his use of steel in making sculptures. His sculptures are inseparable from the site, unlike some modernist work that ignores location. Serra explains that it’s hard to find commissioned work that doesn’t make you a corporate puppet. He shows interest in pieces of art altering sites. His work is process centered and he says “process can become part of the content”.

Leo Steinberg’s text ‘Excerpt from Other Criteria: The Flatbed Picture Plane’ was written in 1968. He points out horizontal paintings often resemble the human form. He explains in art history during the renaissance only upright pieces were valued.  Steinberg says verticality was only first rejected in the 1950s. He views older art as more natural and views Rauschenberg and Dubuffet as radical artists exploring culture. He explains some of Rauschenberg work has developed to be more flat embedding objects into one work surface. He’s interested in Andy Warhol’s art that relating to everyday practice.

Both texts are uninterested in traditional ways of working. Serra’s text rejects ideas of traditional studios. Steinberg shows interest in non-traditional work by talking about industrial methods of printing and mass media production which he talks about seeing in Warhol’s work.