Why create a dialogue between the works of such different artists? A first answer – not satisfactory by conceptual standards, but nevertheless fundamental – is that this pairing works visually. Both artists are interested in distressed materials, and both create simplified sculptural forms that interact in complex ways with the surrounding space, in this case Tadao Ando’s architecture.

Brancusi probably never saw works by his younger peer, but Serra studied the other artist’s work, notably while in Paris in 1963-64. However, this installation does not trace influence or offer a view of the elder artist’s work through the eyes of the younger. It presents a carefully chosen selection of works and brings them together in such a way that each springs to life in its specific placement within the Pulitzer. The works sometimes “converse” directly with one another, and sometimes they participate in the larger context by raising similar issues about artistic creation.

The works of these artists can also be seen as farewell serenades to their respective eras. Brancusi meditates on the end of traditional craftsmanship, often using salvaged material from times past or seeking perfection in his surface treatments of bronze, stone and wood. Serra reflects on the end of the industrial era, working with cast-off industrial materials and also with steel, the quintessential material of the industrial revolution.

Both artists concentrate, stack or spread volumes and play with conventions of title, base and function. Both encourage the visitor to experience the forms and the space they share as intriguing, menacing or sublimely beautiful.