Martin Puryear

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Martin Puryear
The Blade-Tribune, Martin Puryear 1984 (cropped).jpg
Puryear in 1984
Born (1941-05-23) May 23, 1941 (age 84)
Washington, D.C., United States
Education The Catholic University of America
Yale University (MFA)
Known for Sculpture
Awards Guggenheim Fellowship
MacArthur Foundation Fellowship
Rome Prize
National Medal of Arts
J. Paul Getty Medal

Martin L. Puryear (born May 23, 1941) is an American artist known for his devotion to traditional craft. Working in a variety of media, but primarily wood, his reductive technique and meditative approach challenge the physical and poetic boundaries of his materials. [1] : 54–57 

Contents

Puryear has participated in the Whitney Biennial three times and in 2019 he represented the United States with a solo exhibition at the 58th Venice Biennale.

Early life and education

Martin Puryear was born May 23, 1941, in Washington, D.C., to Reginald Puryear and Martina Puryear. His father and mother worked as a postal worker and teacher, respectively, and Puryear was the first of their seven children. [2]

Puryear began exploring traditional craft methods in his youth, making tools, boats, musical instruments, and furniture. [3] He enrolled at The Catholic University of America in Washington in 1959, originally studying biology before switching to art as a junior. While an undergraduate, he learned about the Washington Color School painters, including faculty member Kenneth Noland, and he participated in several group exhibitions in the Washington area. Puryear graduated from Catholic with a BA in art in 1963. [4]

After graduation, Puryear spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone. [5] From 1966 to 1968, he studied printmaking at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm, funded by a grant from The American-Scandinavian Foundation. [4] He returned to the United States in 1969 after receiving a grant to enroll in the graduate program at the Yale School of Art. Among his professors and visiting teachers at Yale were sculptors Robert Morris, James Rosati, Salvatore Scarpitta, and Richard Serra, and he became close with the painting faculty member Al Held. [6] Puryear graduated from Yale in 1971 with an MFA in sculpture. [7] Although he discovered Minimalism at a formative period in his development, Puryear would ultimately reject its impersonality and formalism. [8] : 168–197 

Life and career

1971–1979

In 1971, Puryear was hired to teach at the historically black Fisk University in Tennessee, having been offered the position by art department chair David Driskell. [7]

Puryear staged his first solo art exhibition in the United States in January 1972 at the Henri 2 Gallery in Washington. [7] The show received positive coverage from local critics. [9] [10]

Puryear staged his second solo exhibition at Henri 2 Gallery in 1973. [11] [12] He also left Fisk in 1973 and moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In 1974, he accepted a job offer at the University of Maryland, College Park, and began spending half of each week in both New York and Maryland. [7]

In 1977, following a devastating fire in his Brooklyn studio, Puryear moved to Chicago and began teaching at the University of Illinois. [13] In August 1977, he opened a two-room exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, his first solo museum show. He exhibited a seventeen foot tall yurt-like wooden structure covered in animal hides that visitors could enter in the first room, along with a series of smaller sculptures in the second room. [14] [15]

In 1979, Puryear was included in the Whitney Biennial at New York's Whitney Museum. [16] He also staged a solo exhibition at Protetch-McIntosh Gallery in Washington in 1979, showing a number of circular sculptures hung flat on the wall, made of various types of wood. [17] [18]

1980–1989

He participated in the Whitney Biennial again in 1981. [19]

In 1982, Puryear was commissioned by Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania to create a permanent public sculpture commemorating the university's 150th anniversary. [20] His commissioned sculpture, Sentinel, [21] a large wall-like concrete and stone form with rocks embedded in its surface, was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. [22] [23]

Puryear travelled to Japan in 1982 through a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship where he investigated architecture and garden design. [24]

The University Gallery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst [a] organized the first traveling museum survey of Puryear's work in 1984, exhibiting his art from the previous ten years. [32] He staged a solo exhibition at Chicago's Donald Young Gallery in 1985. [33]

The Chicago Cultural Center organized a ten-year survey of Puryear's work in 1987. [34] [35]

In 1989, Puryear was awarded the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and represented the United States at the São Paulo Bienal, Brazil. [36] [37] He was also included in the Whitney Biennial again in 1989. [38] [39]

1990–1999

In 1990, Puryear was the inaugural participant in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's Connections exhibitions series, creating new work in response to art from the museum's collection. Taking inspiration from a 17th-century painting of a falcon, he built a wooden yurt structure with gridded wooden slats, surrounded by abstract birdlike works made from wood, iron, bronze, and rawhide, all arranged on ledges on the walls. [40] [41]

The Art Institute of Chicago [b] mounted a twenty-year traveling retrospective of Puryear's art in 1991, featuring forty works. [52] [53] [54] The same year, Puryear was introduced to the choreographer Garth Fagan and began a collaboration on Fagan's dance work Griot New York. [55] [56] Puryear designed the elaborate sculptural wooden sets for the piece, a reflection on the African diasporic community and culture of New York City, which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in December 1991. [57] [58]

Puryear was commissioned by the federal General Services Administration in the mid-1990s to create a sculpture for the new Ronald Reagan Building in Washington's Federal Triangle area, although work was temporarily suspended on the project in 1996 amidst a budget shortfall. [59] [60] [61] Puryear's work Bearing Witness, a monumental abstract bronze sculpture, was completed in 1998 and permanently installed in a plaza outside the building. [62]

In 1999, Puryear completed That Profile, a public sculpture commissioned for the Getty Center in Los Angeles. [63] The work, installed at the arrival plaza for the museum's tram system, comprises a tall, oblong skeletal form made of long steel tubes joined together with bronze. [64]

2000–2009

He staged a traveling survey in 2001 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, [c] exhibiting twelve large sculptures. [70]

Puryear staged a solo exhibition at McKee Gallery in New York in 2002, showing four new wood sculptures. [71] [72] [73] In 2006, he mounted a solo show at Donald Young Gallery in Chicago, his first exhibition in the city in fourteen years. [74]

New York's Museum of Modern Art [d] organized a traveling thirty-year retrospective in 2007 of Puryear's work. [79] [80]

2010–2019

In 2012, president Barack Obama awarded Puryear the National Medal of Arts. [81] Puryear also mounted another solo show at McKee Gallery in 2012, exhibiting around a dozen new sculptures, including several that appeared like wheeled wooden carts. [82] [83] [84]

Puryear staged a solo exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York in 2014. He showed nine new sculptures and two works on paper, all visually based on the phrygian cap, a well-known symbol of freedom and emancipation from slavery. [85] [86]

In 2015, the Morgan Library & Museum [e] in New York premiered a traveling exhibition of Puryear's drawings and works on paper, titled Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions. [91] [92]

Puryear installed Big Bling, a monumental wood, fiberglass, and gold leaf sculpture, in New York's Madison Square Park [f] in 2016 for several months as part of the park's public art program. [95] [96] The sculpture consisted of a forty foot tall skeletal wooden form covered with a chainlink fence, topped with a massive gold shackle. [97]

In 2017, he staged a forty-year retrospective of more than thirty works at London's Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, his first solo show at a nonprofit institution in the United Kingdom. [98]

Puryear represented the United States at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019 with an exhibition commissioned by Brooke Kamin Rapaport, senior curator of Madison Square Park's public art program. [99] [100] His exhibition Liberty/Libertà in the American pavilion featured eight abstract sculptural works exploring themes of slavery and freedom, including a work dedicated to Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman whom American president Thomas Jefferson owned and is alleged to have fathered several children with. [101] [102]

2020–present

In 2021, Puryear staged another solo show at Matthew Marks Gallery, exhibiting five sculptures from his Venice exhibition along with one new work, a large bronze basket sculpture that he had previously made in wood in several iterations. [103] [104] [105]

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opened a traveling survey of Puryear’s career in 2025 titled Martin Puryear: Nexus, highlighting the variety of materials used in his sculptures. [106] [107]

Artwork

Vessel (1997-2002), Smithsonian American Art Museum Vessel by Martin Puryear.jpg
Vessel (1997–2002), Smithsonian American Art Museum
Bearing Witness in Woodrow Wilson Plaza, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C. View in the Woodrow Wilson Plaza (along the building's 13th Street side) looking to Martin Puryear's "Bearing Witness" sculpture - Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, HABS DC-860-1.tif
Bearing Witness in Woodrow Wilson Plaza, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C.

The artwork of Martin Puryear is a product of visibly complex craft construction and manipulation of pure material; its forms are combinations of the organic and the geometric. His process can be described as reductive, seeking to bring work and material close to its original state and creating rationality in each work derived from the maker and act of making. This is what Puryear calls "inevitability", or a "fullness of being within limits" that defines function. [1] : 54–57 

Often associated with both Minimalism and Formalist sculpture, Puryear rejects that his work is ever non-referential or objective. The pure and direct imagistic forms born from his use of traditional craft are allusive and poetic, as well as deeply personal. Visually, they encounter the history of objects and the history of their making, suggesting public and private narratives including those of the artist, race, ritual, and identity. [108] His work is widely exhibited and collected both in the United States and internationally.

For close to fifty years, Puryear has created works that transpose his distinctive abstract sculptural language to a monumental scale. From his earliest outdoor work at Artpark, in Lewistown, New York, in 1977 to his newly inaugurated 2023 permanent commission for Storm King Art Center, Puryear's public and site-specific sculptures originate with the artist's hand, whether through drawings or with models that the artist carves or fashions from pieces of wood. [109]

Lookout (2023)

In 2023, Puryear completed Lookout, his first large-scale sculpture made of brick, at Storm King Art Center in New York's Hudson Valley. [110] [111] [112] The artwork is a compound-curved domed shell, pierced by 90 circular apertures of various sizes. Visitors can walk around and into the sculpture, enjoying the views of the surrounding area. [113]

This project had been a structural puzzle until a meeting in 2019 between the artist and MIT professor and structural engineer John Ochsendorf unlocked a solution. Ochesendorf has extensively researched ancient and traditional architectural technologies, particularly masonry vaults and domes. Their meeting resulted in a near-instantaneous collaborative scheme that incorporated the principle of Nubian vaulting, an ancient building method with which Ochsendorf and Puryear were both familiar. Engineering services were provided by Silman Associates, Structural Engineers. [110]

At Storm King the construction was led by Lara Davis (Limaçon Design), a vaulting specialist and practicing architect. After refining the material selection and detailing the construction method, Davis collaborated with the Puryear Studio to build the sculpture. The work was completed over a period of two summers. [110]

Puryear considers Lookout to be the most complex sculpture he has completed to date. [111]

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

  1. ↑ After closing in Amherst, the exhibition traveled to the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, [25] the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury, Massachusetts, [26] the New Museum in New York, [27] [28] and the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego. [29] [30] [31]
  2. ↑ After closing in Chicago, the retrospective traveled to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., [42] [43] [44] [45] the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, [46] [47] [48] and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. [49] [50] [51]
  3. ↑ After closing in Richmond, the exhibition traveled to the Miami Art Museum, [65] [66] the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California, [67] and the Des Moines Art Center in Des Moines, Iowa. [68] It was originally scheduled to travel to the Seattle Art Museum but that tour stop was canceled. [69]
  4. ↑ After closing in New York, the retrospective traveled to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Fort Worth, Texas, [75] the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., [76] and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. [77] [78]
  5. ↑ After closing in New York, the exhibition traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago (the organizing institution), [87] and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. [88] [89] [90]
  6. ↑ After going off view in New York, the sculpture was subsequently temporarily reinstalled in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, [93] and at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Massachusetts. [94]

Citations

  1. 1 2 Shearer, Linda. Young American Artists 1978 Exxon National Exhibition. New York: The Solomon Guggenheim Museum, 1978
  2. ↑ Francis, Jacqueline (June 10, 2024). "Puryear, Martin" . Grove Art Online . Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T2090828.
  3. ↑ Lewallen, Constance. Martin Puryear: Matrix/Berkeley 86. Berkeley, California: University Art Museum, 1985
  4. 1 2 Owen & Tormollan (1991), p. 138.
  5. ↑ Field (2007), p. 168–169.
  6. ↑ Field (2007), p. 170.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Field (2007), p. 171.
  8. ↑ Elderfield, John, and Michael Auping, Martin Puryear. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2007
  9. ↑ Richard, Paul (January 29, 1972). "Art Notes; A Test in Connoisseurship". The Washington Post . Sec. C, p. 8. ProQuest   148210861.
  10. ↑ Forgey, Benjamin (January 12, 1972). "Martin Puryear's Show; An Artist Comes Home". The Evening Star . Sec. B, p. 11.
  11. ↑ Richard, Paul (October 5, 1973). "Between 2-D And 3-D". The Washington Post . Sec. B, pp. 1, 13. ProQuest   148383992.
  12. ↑ Forgey, Benjamin (September 19, 1973). "Gallery Roundup; A Young Artist Arrives". Washington Star-News . Sec. B, p. 2.
  13. ↑ Field (2007), p. 172.
  14. ↑ Forgey, Benjamin (August 14, 1977). "The Corcoran Has Become the Summer Place". The Washington Star . Sec. H, p. 20.
  15. ↑ Richard, Paul (July 30, 1977). "Art; A Shrine Of Cedar And Hide". The Washington Post . Sec. B, pp. 1–2. ProQuest   146649294.
  16. ↑ Crary, Jonathan (October 1979). "Martin Puryear's Sculpture" . Artforum . Vol. 18, no. 2. pp. 28–31. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  17. ↑ Forgey, Benjamin (December 7, 1979). "Puryear's Circles: Subtle, Brooding Presence". The Washington Star . Sec. C, p. 3.
  18. ↑ Lewis, Jo Ann (November 24, 1979). "Shards and Epistles; Galleries". The Washington Post . Sec. D, p. 3. ProQuest   147103815.
  19. ↑ Forgey, Benjamin (March 15, 1981). "Amid a Welter of Art, One Image Stands Out". The Washington Star . Sec. F, p. 2.
  20. ↑ Newkirk, Jim (October 24, 1982). "Modernistic Sculpture Draws Mixed Reviews". The Patriot-News . Sec. B, p. 5. Retrieved February 8, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ Maldonado Lopez, Merlyn I.; Egan, Shannon (2021). Martin Puryear: 40 Years Since Sentinel. Schmucker Catalogs, no. 38. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Schmucker Art Gallery, Gettysburg College . Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  22. ↑ Sipkoff, Martin (October 25, 1982). "Puryear completes sculpture at college". The Gettysburg Times . pp.  1, 2 . Retrieved February 8, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ Roth, Jeff (November 1, 1982). "Gettysburg College holds homecoming". The Evening Sun. Hanover, Pennsylvania. p. 2. Retrieved February 8, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ Owen & Tormollan (1991), p. 139.
  25. ↑ Bonenti, Charles (April 28, 1984). "Art Review; Martin Puryear at the museum". The Berkshire Eagle . p. 10. Retrieved February 8, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  26. ↑ Temin, Christine (July 7, 1984). "Puryear's 'primitive' sophistication". The Boston Globe . p. 8. Retrieved February 8, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  27. ↑ Brenson, Michael (August 10, 1984). "Sculpture: Puryear Postminimalism" . The New York Times . Sec. C, p. 24. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  28. ↑ Silverthorne, Jeanne (December 1984). "Martin Puryear" . Artforum . Vol. 23, no. 4. pp. 82–83. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  29. ↑ Arner, Mark (October 18, 1984). "Curiosity about making things spurs artist". The Blade-Tribune . Oceanside, California. p. 25. Retrieved February 8, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  30. ↑ Kelley, Jeff (October 29, 1984). "S.D. Show; Puryear's Sculpture Casts Spell". Los Angeles Times . Part VI, pp. 1, 3 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  31. ↑ Pincus, Robert L. (November 5, 1984). "Art Review; A Transformer Of Minimalism". Los Angeles Times . Part VI, pp. 1, 6 . Retrieved February 8, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  32. ↑ Potter, Jessica (February 23, 1984). "Art; An artist's journey recorded". The Republican . Springfield, Massachusetts. Sec. W, p. 2. Retrieved February 8, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  33. ↑ Artner, Alan G. (October 25, 1985). "Art-Antiques; Perfection is hallmark of Puryear sculpture". Chicago Tribune . Sec. 7, pp. 51, 52 . Retrieved February 8, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  34. ↑ Artner, Alan G. (February 1, 1987). "A sculptor's 2 sides; Martin Puryear on his public and private art". Chicago Tribune . Sec. 13, pp. 14, 15 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  35. ↑ Stokes, Charlotte (May 1987). "Martin Puryear" . Artforum . Vol. 25, no. 9. p. 154. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  36. ↑ "Martin Puryear – MacArthur Foundation". www.macfound.org. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  37. ↑ House, Richard (October 19, 1989). "Puryear Wins Grand Prize at Sao Paulo" . The Washington Post . Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  38. ↑ Lewis, Jo Ann (April 29, 1989). "The Culture Compass; In New York, the Whitney Biennial Points to a New Direction". The Washington Post . Sec. C, p. 1. ProQuest   307159159.
  39. ↑ Wilson, William (April 29, 1989). "Art Review; Deja Vu-ing at the Whitney" . Los Angeles Times . Retrieved February 8, 2026.
  40. ↑ Temin, Christine (March 25, 1990). "Art; The time of Martin Puryear". The Boston Globe . Sec. B, pp. 25, 28, 29 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  41. ↑ Phillips, Patricia C. (October 1990). "Martin Puryear; Museum of Fine Arts" . Artforum . Vol. 29, no. 2. pp. 172–173. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  42. ↑ Richard, Paul (February 5, 1992). "Art; He Sawed & Conquered; Sculptor Martin Puryear's Homecoming at the Hirshhorn" . The Washington Post . Sec. B, pp. 1, 10. ProQuest   140648524 . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  43. ↑ Kimmelman, Michael (March 1, 1992). "Art View; The Softly Spoken Message of Martin Puryear" . The New York Times . Sec. H, p. 35. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  44. ↑ Dorsey, John (March 1, 1992). "Puryear's sculptures are an artistic blend of elegance, ambiguity". The Baltimore Sun . Sec. D, pp. 1, 3 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  45. ↑ Homes, A. M. (September 1992). "Martin Puryear; Hirshhorn Museum" . Artforum . Vol. 31, no. 1. p. 102. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  46. ↑ Knight, Christopher (July 30, 1992). "Art Review; Puryear: A Paean to Craftsmen" . Los Angeles Times . Retrieved February 7, 2026.
  47. ↑ Muchnic, Suzanne (August 2, 1992). "The Handyman: Martin Puryear stays in touch with his sculptures, bending, splitting, molding and joining his materials with a craftsman's skills" . Los Angeles Times . Retrieved February 7, 2026.
  48. ↑ Rugoff, Ralph (August 21–27, 1992). "See Me, Feel Me; Living in a tactile world". LA Weekly . pp.  41, 42 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  49. ↑ Sozanski, Edward J. (November 8, 1992). "Art; Sculptor Martin Puryear carves out his spot at the top". The Philadelphia Inquirer . Sec. H, pp. 1, 5 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  50. ↑ Zimmer, William (December 20, 1992). "Art; Unity and Diversity in Sculpture" . The New York Times . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  51. ↑ LaMar, Doris (December 31, 1992). "Sculptor Martin Puryear builds up instead of carving out". Asbury Park Press . Sec. E, p. 3. Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  52. ↑ Artner, Alan G. (November 3, 1991). "On form and function; The finely sculpted thoughts of Martin Puryear". Chicago Tribune . Sec. 13, pp. 10, 12 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  53. ↑ Ligocki, Gordon (November 8, 1991). "Written in wood; Artist's creations are poetry in motion". The Times . Hammond, Indiana. Sec. E, pp. 1, 7 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  54. ↑ Baker, Kenneth (November 16, 1991). "Chicago Retrospective for a Rule-Breaker". San Francisco Chronicle . Sec. C, p. 6. Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  55. ↑ Nichols, Peter M. (December 1, 1991). "Dance: Three 'Storytellers' Paint One Portrait Of the New York Scene" . The New York Times . Sec. H, p. 22. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  56. ↑ Kriegsman, Alan M. (June 11, 1992). "Fagan's Shining Apple; In 'Griot,' He Choreographs His Love for N.Y.". The Washington Post . Sec. B, p. 2. ProQuest   140660524.
  57. ↑ Kisselgoff, Anna (December 6, 1991). "Review/Dance; A Heritage Is Affirmed In 'Griot New York'" . The New York Times . Sec. C, p. 3. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  58. ↑ Kriegsman, Alan M. (June 13, 1992). "Dance; Fagan's 'Griot': A Tale Without Time". The Washington Post . Sec. C, pp. 1–2. ProQuest   140641012.
  59. ↑ Trescott, Jacqueline (June 22, 1996). "Federal Agency Halts Art Project". The Washington Post . Sec. D, pp. 1, 6. ProQuest   1030908873.
  60. ↑ Trescott, Jacqueline (July 30, 1996). "Sculptors Put Back to Work; GSA Reverses Federal Triangle Decision". The Washington Post . Sec. E, p. 3. ProQuest   1030761255.
  61. ↑ Vogel, Carol (August 2, 1996). "Inside Art" . The New York Times . Sec. C, p. 25. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  62. ↑ Forgey, Benjamin (April 25, 1998). "The Capstone of the Federal Triangle". The Washington Post . Sec. C, pp. 1, 5. ProQuest   1620174803.
  63. ↑ Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter (December 5, 1999). "Building a Vision From the Ground Up" . Los Angeles Times . Retrieved February 7, 2026.
  64. ↑ Knight, Christopher (November 26, 1999). "Monumental Greeting" . Los Angeles Times . Retrieved February 7, 2026.
  65. ↑ Ocaña, Damarys (July 6, 2001). "Wood wins; Martin Puryear's years in shop class seem to have paid off". Miami Herald . Sec. "Street", p. 42. Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  66. ↑ Turner, Elisa (July 15, 2001). "Art History; Martin Puryear's abstract sculptures, inspired by diverse traditions from around the world, pay tribute to the humble and the heroic". Miami Herald . Sec. M, pp. 3, 9 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  67. ↑ Baker, Kenneth (August 26, 2001). "Pure Puryear; Sculptor's Berkeley survey is an art highlight". San Francisco Chronicle . Sec. "Datebook", p. 63. Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  68. ↑ Thorson, Alice (February 3, 2002). "Art exhibits worth the time and the drive; Des Moines and Omaha galleries have sights to see". The Kansas City Star . Sec. J, p. 3 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  69. ↑ Hackett, Regina (December 27, 2001). "It was an eye-catching year for visual art despite tough times" . Seattle Post-Intelligencer . Retrieved February 8, 2026.
  70. ↑ Richard, Paul (March 11, 2001). "The Sculptor's Swell Curves; Martin Puryear, Giving His Alluring Woodworks An Elegant Avian Aura". The Washington Post . Sec. G, pp. 1, 6. ProQuest   1969759256.
  71. ↑ Johnson, Ken (May 24, 2002). "Art in Review; Martin Puryear" . The New York Times . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  72. ↑ Teachout, Terry (June 2, 2002). "Thoroughly Modern Masterworks From Diebenkorn, Puryear, and... Ovid? You Bet". The Washington Post . Sec. G, p. 10. ProQuest   2076155160.
  73. ↑ Kuspit, Donald (October 2002). "Martin Puryear; McKee Gallery" . Artforum . Vol. 41, no. 2. p. 154. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  74. ↑ Artner, Alan G. (January 13, 2006). "Opportunity to see Puryear's refined work is not to be missed". Chicago Tribune . Sec. 7, p. 11. Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  75. ↑ Hudson, Suzanne (May 2008). "Martin Puryear; Museum of Modern Art, New York and Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth" . Artforum . Vol. 46, no. 9. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  76. ↑ Gopnik, Blake (June 22, 2008). "The Art Craftsman; Martin Puryear Came Late to Abstraction But Carved a Niche for Himself Nonetheless" . The Washington Post . Sec. M, pp. 6–7. ProQuest   410233110 . Retrieved February 7, 2026.
  77. ↑ Baker, Kenneth (November 8, 2008). "Sculpture in right direction; Puryear's large pieces at SFMOMA orient themselves, and viewers' attitudes, in space". San Francisco Chronicle . Sec. E, pp. 1, 10 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  78. ↑ Dalkey, Victoria (December 21, 2008). "The wonderful mystery keeps growing; Intriguing art of Martin Puryear is about essence, not appearance". The Sacramento Bee . Sec. "Explore", pp. 10, 11 . Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  79. ↑ Smith, Roberta (November 2, 2007). "Art Review | Martin Puryear; Humanity's Ascent, in Three Dimensions" . The New York Times . Retrieved February 1, 2026.
  80. ↑ Cook, Greg (December 16, 2007). "From this sculptor, an elegant retrospective in wood, wire". The Boston Globe . Sec. N, p. 4. Retrieved February 7, 2026– via Newspapers.com.
  81. ↑ "National Medal of Arts Honors Will Barnet, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, and Martin Puryear". Artforum . February 13, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2026.
  82. ↑ Johnson, Ken (June 7, 2012). "Art in Review; Martin Puryear: 'New Sculpture'" . The New York Times . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  83. ↑ Frankel, David (October 2012). "Martin Puryear; McKee Gallery" . Artforum . Vol. 51, no. 2. Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  84. ↑ Ebony, David (October 3, 2012). "Martin Puryear". Art in America . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  85. ↑ Cotter, Holland (December 11, 2014). "Art in Review; Martin Puryear" . The New York Times . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  86. ↑ Considine, Austin (February 27, 2015). "Martin Puryear". Art in America . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  87. ↑ Liebman, Kate (April 2016). "Martin Puryear Multiple Dimensions". The Brooklyn Rail . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  88. ↑ Kennicott, Philip (May 27, 2016). "A sculptor's work, seen in two and three dimensions" . The Washington Post . ProQuest   1792114866 . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  89. ↑ Atwood, Roger (July 27, 2016). "Face to Face: Martin Puryear at Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C." ARTnews . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  90. ↑ O'Steen, Danielle (July–August 2017). "Exhibition and Book Review; Martin Puryear at the Smithsonian". Art in Print . Vol. 7, no. 2. pp. 38–40. JSTOR   26408844.
  91. ↑ Esplund, Lance (November 23, 2015). "'Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions' Review" . The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  92. ↑ Farago, Jason (December 24, 2015). "Art Review; In 'Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions', Glimpsing an Artist's Process" . The New York Times . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  93. ↑ Crimmins, Peter (September 12, 2017). "The Big Bling has renewed interest in sculptor Martin Puryear's drawings". WHYY . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
  94. ↑ Russeth, Andrew (December 21, 2017). "Martin Puryear's 'Big Bling' Heads to MASS MoCA". ARTnews . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
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  98. ↑ Nayeri, Farah (October 15, 2017). "Martin Puryear's Works Mine African-American History" . The New York Times . Retrieved February 6, 2026.
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  102. ↑ Plagens, Peter (May 28, 2019). "'Liberty/Libertà' Review: Grappling With America's Past in Venice" . The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on August 11, 2019. Retrieved February 8, 2026.
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  105. ↑ Yau, John (January 23, 2021). "Martin Puryear's Open Questions". Hyperallergic . Retrieved February 7, 2026.
  106. ↑ Whyte, Murray (October 3, 2025). "Through the darkness with Martin Puryear at the MFA" . The Boston Globe . Retrieved February 7, 2026.
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  108. ↑ Golden, Deven K., ed. Martin Puryear: Public and Personal. Chicago: Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, 1987.
  109. ↑ "Storm King : Exhibition : Martin Puryear: Process and Scale [EXH.152]". collections.stormking.org. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  110. 1 2 3 Dizikes, Peter (October 27, 2023). "A marvel in masonry shows the art of the possible". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  111. 1 2 Valentine, Victoria L. (September 26, 2023). "A Feat of Engineering and Craftsmanship, Martin Puryear's First Brick Sculpture Was a Decade in the Making: 'It's Been an Adventure and a Challenge'". Culture Type. Culture Type, LLC. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  112. ↑ Cortez, Benjamin (October 29, 2023). "Storm King Art Center Unveils "Lookout" Sculpture: A Fusion of Art and Engineering by Martin Puryear and MIT Collaborators". Hoodline. SFist LLC. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  113. ↑ Loos, Ted (September 14, 2023). "Brick by Brick, a Sculpture at Storm King, by Way of Africa" . The New York Times . Retrieved December 21, 2023.

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