Martin Puryear

Martin Puryear (born May 23, 1941 in Washington ) is an American sculptor .

life and work

Martin Puryear was born the oldest of seven children. As a child he was already constructing guitars, arrows and bows. He first studied biology at the Catholic University of America and then switched to the arts department. He obtained his Bachelor of Fine Art in 1963. He then went to Sierra Leone as a volunteer with the Peace Corps , where he taught English, French, biology and art. In Sierra Leone, Puryear drew flora and fauna and learned traditional woodworking techniques.

In 1967 he traveled to Lapland with his brother and then studied in Stockholm at the Kungliga Konsthögskolan Stockholm . While studying printing techniques, he also worked three-dimensionally. He assisted James Krenov (1920–2009). Back in the United States, Martin Puryear enrolled in the sculpture graduate program at Yale University , graduating in 1971. Puryear has taught at Fisk University in Nashville, the University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign .

Puryear became known as a sculptor who combined modern geometry with organic shapes and craft traditions. He works mainly with wood, tar, rawhide and stone.

"His formalism taps into a legacy even larger than race: the history of objects, both utilitarian and not, and their making. From this all else follows, namely human history, race included, along with issues of craft, ritual, approaches to nature and all kinds of ethnic traditions and identities.

These references seep out of his highly allusive, often poetic forms in waves, evoking the earlier Modernism of Brancusi , Arp , Noguchi and Duchamp , but also carpentry, basket weaving, African sculpture and the building of shelter and ships. His work slows you down and makes you consider its every detail as physical fact, artistic choice and purveyor of meaning. "

- Roberta Smith

Martin Puryear mainly exhibits in the USA. An extensive retrospective was held for him in 2007 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He takes part in numerous group exhibitions, including documenta IX in Kassel in 1992.

Puryear has been honored with the most prestigious awards: a Guggenheim grant , the MacArthur Fellowship , the Prix ​​de Rome . In 2007 he received the gold medal for his complete work as a sculptor from the American Academy of Arts and Letters . Puryear was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2011 .

In 2019, Puryear will represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. This is the second year in a row that an African American artist has been selected to represent the United States.

literature

• New sculpture six artists: Richard Deacon , Rebecca Horn , Richard Long , Tom Otterness , Martin Puryear, James Turrell by Maureen Megerian; Daniel A Reich; St. Louis Art Museum. (English), 1989

Web links

• Martin Puryear with David Levi Strauss
• Martin Puryear at artfacts.net

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Documenta IX: Kassel, June 13th-20th September 1992 - catalog in three volumes, volume 1, page 207; Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-89322-380-0
2. ↑ Guggenheim collection accessed online on August 27, 2016 (English)
3. ↑ SfMoMa Martin Puryear accessed on August 27, 2016 (English)
4. ↑ New York Times, November 2, 2007 Humanity's Ascent, accessed in Three Dimensions on August 27, 2016.
5. ↑ Martin Puryear has been picked to represent the US at the 2019 Venice Biennale, ending months of speculation. In: artsy.net. Retrieved August 15, 2018 .