Richard Serra's 1966 Rome exhibition with live animals revisited at MACRO

A new exhibition at MACRO in Rome revisits Richard Serra's controversial 1966 show "Animal habitats live and stuffed" at Galleria La Salita, which featured live and stuffed animals in cages. Curated by Gian Tomaso Liverani, the original show sparked outrage and media attention, including coverage in Time magazine, for its use of living creatures. Serra, who later won the Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Biennale, created the works with his wife Nancy Graves. The exhibition combined Wunderkammer aesthetics with bric-a-brac, using non-artistic materials to challenge traditional sculpture and perception. The current MACRO show, while focusing on black-and-white archival material, somewhat underplays the provocative spirit of the original. Serra's time in Florence (1965-66) and his study of zoological gardens influenced the project, as did his encounter with Velázquez's "Las Meninas" at the Prado. The 1966 show is considered a precursor to similar works by Kounellis and Pascali and a key moment in 20th-century Italian art.