Martin Puryear
Encyclopedia
Martin Puryear is an African American
sculptor. He works in media including wood, stone, tar, and wire, and his work is a union of minimalism
and traditional crafts.
, and he spent his youth studying practical crafts, learning how to build guitars and furniture. He received a B.A. from The Catholic University of America
in 1963 and was a Peace Corps
volunteer in Sierra Leone
from 1964 to 1966. In the late 1960s, he studied printmaking in Sweden
and assisted a master cabinet-maker. He entered the Yale University
graduate sculpture program in 1968.
His first solo exhibition was held in the late 1970s at the Corcoran Gallery of Art
. In the 1980s he participated in two Whitney Biennial
s and received a Guggenheim Fellowship
. He received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1989.
In 2003, he served on the Jury for the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition
.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
presented a 30-year survey of Puryear's work in 2008-2009. The presentation included "a special installation in the Haas Atrium including Ladder for Booker T. Washington (1996), made from a 36-foot-long split sapling, and Ad Astra (2007), a 63-foot-tall work that rises to the museum's fifth-floor bridge."
Puryear uses common materials such as wood, tar, wire and various metals to create forms that reference traditional crafts and building methods and, at the same time, formalist sculpture
. Puryear’s work is often associated with Minimalism
, although the artist himself rejects the minimalist ideal of complete objectivity and non-referentiality. Of minimalism he once said, “I looked at it, I tasted it, and I spat it out.”
His works are held in the collections of the Guggenheim
, Museum of Modern Art
, Corcoran Gallery of Art
, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
, The National Gallery of Art, Walker Art Center
, Art Institute of Chicago
and Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
.
God.
, maple
, and cherry
. It is an open box with two thick branches connected to it. The branches extend in a downward motion connecting to the axle
of a wheel
. Sanctuary relies on both the wall and the floor for support. It is because of this characteristic that the sculpture symbolizes stability and mobility. The box is solid and firmly on the wall, while the wheel is free to rotate on the floor. Yet the wheel cannot go very far because of the box that is securing it.
Puryear's minimalistic ideals come into play here as the wheel is made out of pure wood and the sticks connecting the box and the wheel are tree branches, not even cut. He used absolutely no technology in the creation of this work of art, so it is safe to say that cavemen thousands of years ago could have created this same work, just devoid of the same thought process. It is so primitive that he chooses to make the wheel completely solid, it lacks such basic parts as spokes. Puryear says that Sanctuary is like many of his other works, they deal with "mobility and a kind of escapism, of survival through flight."
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
sculptor. He works in media including wood, stone, tar, and wire, and his work is a union of minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
and traditional crafts.
Life
Martin Puryear was born in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and he spent his youth studying practical crafts, learning how to build guitars and furniture. He received a B.A. from The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...
in 1963 and was a Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
volunteer in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
from 1964 to 1966. In the late 1960s, he studied printmaking in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and assisted a master cabinet-maker. He entered the Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
graduate sculpture program in 1968.
His first solo exhibition was held in the late 1970s at the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
. In the 1980s he participated in two Whitney Biennial
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennale exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973...
s and received a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
. He received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1989.
In 2003, he served on the Jury for the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition
World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition
The World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was an open, international memorial contest, initiated by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation , as per the specifications of architect Daniel Libeskind, to design a World Trade Center Site Memorial on a portion of the World Trade Center site...
.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
presented a 30-year survey of Puryear's work in 2008-2009. The presentation included "a special installation in the Haas Atrium including Ladder for Booker T. Washington (1996), made from a 36-foot-long split sapling, and Ad Astra (2007), a 63-foot-tall work that rises to the museum's fifth-floor bridge."
Work
Martin Puryear’s work is the product of much thought, assembled in a minimalist, simple design. Two of his main works are Sanctuary and Box and Pole. The latter’s simplicity is evident just by analyzing its simple title. Box and Pole comprises a box on the ground with a hundred foot pole jutting upwards to the sky, therefore symbolizing our position on earth. We are superior to some things (the box), yet inferior to others (higher spiritual powers). He is clearly a modern sculptor, but in works such as Sanctuary he uses primitive techniques to create his final work. Sanctuary is basically a stick connecting a box that anchors what is on the other end of the stick, a wheel. The wheel can move, but its movement is restricted, symbolic of human life. His work contributes to society as a whole as it teaches us many moral lessons such as the two mentioned.Puryear uses common materials such as wood, tar, wire and various metals to create forms that reference traditional crafts and building methods and, at the same time, formalist sculpture
Formalism (art)
In art theory, formalism is the concept that a work's artistic value is entirely determined by its form--the way it is made, its purely visual aspects, and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content...
. Puryear’s work is often associated with Minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
, although the artist himself rejects the minimalist ideal of complete objectivity and non-referentiality. Of minimalism he once said, “I looked at it, I tasted it, and I spat it out.”
His works are held in the collections of the Guggenheim
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
, Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth was first granted a Charter from the State of Texas in 1892 as the "Fort Worth Public Library and Art Gallery", evolving through several name changes and different facilities in Fort Worth...
, The National Gallery of Art, Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
, Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
and Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is a museum located in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, featuring several art collections. For seventy years, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts has been a showcase for the visual arts in Central Alabama...
.
Box and Pole
Box and Pole is an abstract sculpture by American sculptor Martin Puryear. The wood that Box and Pole is made from is supposed to contrast with the abstractness of the sculpture's form. The box was made four feet tall so that the average person can look over it, making them feel superior. However, the 100 foot pole towering over the box gives off an unreachable feeling. This balances out the feeling of superiority. I wouldn’t say that there is movement, but rather that the audience is “stuck” in a parallel universe between that which he is better than (most of nature) and lesser than (higher powers). When looking down on the box one gets a darker image that is less distorted than when you look up at the pole that is brighter due to the sun, yet more distorted due to its 100 ft distance. So in reality, the box is much clearer than the pole, as nature is much clearer to us than the spiritualSpirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
God.
Sanctuary
This wooden sculpture was made in 1982. It is mounted on the wall and was made from pinePine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
, maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
, and cherry
Cherry
The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
. It is an open box with two thick branches connected to it. The branches extend in a downward motion connecting to the axle
Axle
An axle is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to its surroundings, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearings or bushings are provided at the mounting points where the axle...
of a wheel
Wheel
A wheel is a device that allows heavy objects to be moved easily through rotating on an axle through its center, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Common examples found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle,...
. Sanctuary relies on both the wall and the floor for support. It is because of this characteristic that the sculpture symbolizes stability and mobility. The box is solid and firmly on the wall, while the wheel is free to rotate on the floor. Yet the wheel cannot go very far because of the box that is securing it.
Puryear's minimalistic ideals come into play here as the wheel is made out of pure wood and the sticks connecting the box and the wheel are tree branches, not even cut. He used absolutely no technology in the creation of this work of art, so it is safe to say that cavemen thousands of years ago could have created this same work, just devoid of the same thought process. It is so primitive that he chooses to make the wheel completely solid, it lacks such basic parts as spokes. Puryear says that Sanctuary is like many of his other works, they deal with "mobility and a kind of escapism, of survival through flight."
Criticism, Catalogues, Monographs
Danto, Arthur. "Martin Puryear, or the Quandaries of Craftsmanship" in Emobodied Meanings: Critical Essays and Aesthetic Meditations. New York: Farrar Strauss Grioux, 1994.External links
- Biography, interviews, essays, artwork images and video clips from PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
series Art:21 -- Art in the Twenty-First Century - Season 2 (2003). - "Notable Former Volunteers / Arts and Literature". Peace Corps official site. Accessed 5 January 2007.
- Roberta Smith's article in the NYT, Nov. 2, 2007
- Tilted Ash, Article by Arthur C. Danto, December 2007
- Martin Puryear at McKee Gallery Martin Puryear at McKee Gallery, New York
- Martin Puryear retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2008–2009