In the dense thicket of interlocking pine scaffolding of "C.F.A.O.,” 2006–2007, a bristling combination of painted and unpainted pine resting on an old wheelbarrow, is a ceremonial mask of the Fang people of Gabon, West Africa. The wheelbarrow is from Alexander Calder's studio in France. Courtesy of the artist and Donald Young Gallery, Chicago.
:Internationally celebrated as one of the leading sculptors working today, Martin Puryear (b 1941) is known for his painstakingly constructed, wood abstractions of rich, symbolic beauty. Using time-consuming, handcrafting methods, he frequently blends wire mesh and tar with wood, often evoking associations with animal, vegetable and human forms, as well as such artifacts as nets, tools and vessels.
Puryear's meticulous handling of wood draws on his 1960s Peace Corps experience working with craftsmen in Africa and his subsequent study of furniture design and construction in Sweden.
A gifted member of the post-Minimalist generation, his powerful and evocative pieces are notable for their inventive forms, consummate craftsmanship and unusual beauty.
"His sculpture," Glenn D. Lowry of the Museum of Modern Art has said, "draws upon many and various sources of imagery, while bearing the deeply individualized markings of the handmade; unsurprisingly, it has been widely celebrated for its mystery and allusiveness."
The imagination, skill and charm of the oeuvre of this African American sculptor are splendidly showcased in "Martin Puryear," featuring 46 works, including one monumental piece created especially for the exhibition tour. Already seen at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City and the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, it will be on view at the National Gallery of Art through September 28.
The exhibition is organized by John Elderfield, MoMA's chief curator. Says Elderfield, "Puryear's modern art maintains a postmodern belief in forming objects that negotiate the limits of human imagination and practice."
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., the son of a postal employee and a schoolteacher, Puryear took an early interest in the natural sciences and often visited the Museum of Natural History and the National Zoo. Tours of the National Gallery of Art helped stimulate paintings and drawings of animal and bird species, suggesting an ambition to become a wildlife illustrator.
This is the first exhibition in the gallery's history to be installed in both the West and East Buildings. The classical geometry of the West Building, where 40 works are displayed, offers a striking contrast to the artist's organic anthropomorphic forms. Likewise, the modern triangulated shape of the East Building contrasts with the six pieces shown there.
Puryear showed great curiosity about how things are constructed and how they work. "When I was little," he recalls, "I was extremely conscious of materials, of how things were made and put together."
An art major with a concentration on painting, he graduated from Catholic University of America in 1963. He took only one required sculpture course. At first he rejected abstractionism, focusing instead on representational art in the manner of Andrew Wyeth, believing that the "measure of one's ability [is] the ability to faithfully reproduce reality."
His attitude toward abstraction began to change after some painting courses and exposure to avant-garde exhibitions in Washington and New York City. Puryear won some prizes for his early canvases.
During several years in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, he observed traditional techniques of cloth dyeing, pottery making and weaving, and learned wood craftsmanship from local woodworkers and ebony carvers.
