Martin Puryear (American, born 1941) Untitled, 1997 Copper, 65 x 54 1/2 x 48 1/2" Sarah Norton Goodyear Fund, 1997

Martin Puryear was born in 1941 in Washington, D.C. He started college as a biology major at Catholic University of America, but by the time he graduated, he decided to concentrate in art instead. He has remarked that he had always "drawn and painted, even before I went to school, and I was always interested in building things, not sculpture so much but functional things—guitars, furniture, canoes and so on." From 1964 to 1966, he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching art and language in West Africa. Here, he became familiar with local amulets, tribal jewelry, and other items that combined craftsmanship with function. He especially noted that these objects obtained a lustrous patina after being handled for many years.

After leaving West Africa, he spent two years at the Swedish Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm, where he studied printmaking and sculpture; he focused as well on self-study in Scandinavian wood-working and furniture design.

At this time, the Minimalist artists were making themselves known in art circles in America. Minimalism emphasized simplified, large-scale forms with industrial finishes, abolishing all reference beyond themselves. Puryear notes that "Minimalism legitimized in my mind something I have always focused on—the power of the simple, single thing as opposed to a full-blown complex array of things."

Puryear also attended Yale University from 1969 to 1971, which brought him closer to the New York art world. In 1977, he spent the summer at Artpark in Lewiston, New York, where he completed his first major outdoor sculpture, Box and Pole. In 1983, he traveled to Japan. He now lives and works in Chicago.

Puryear’s travels coalesced with his interest in natural and handmade forms. The results are works that are seamlessly crafted, simple wood or natural material objects. Large in scale, ambiguous, and enigmatic, they are reminiscent of amulets, jewelry, symbolic dwelling places, or furniture. The Gallery’s work is made of polished copper, an unusual material for Puryear. It is a large head- or thumb-shaped form punctuated by small, irregularly placed holes. Unlike much of his previous work, it is untitled. There is a large amount of burnishing and markmaking on the surface of the copper, perhaps signaling a new direction for Puryear; indeed the artist’s hand is extremely visible.

— Nancy Spector

SUGGESTIONS FOR HANDS-ON AND DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES

• Make a collection of small things, less than one inch in any dimension. The list of possibilities is endless—grains of rice, rings, earrings, beads, etc. Simple things are okay! Collect them in your classroom. When there are enough for the whole class, have each student choose one object and do some drawings on 8 x 10" paper, looking at the objects from three different directions. Make sure the drawings cover the whole page. Some of the drawings might be very simple.
• Look at the drawings above and choose one. Make a simplified drawing of only the basic shape of the object. Remove all details but the shape—no color, no texture, etc. Give the students a sculpture material—they could use cardboard, scissors, and glue if there is no clay or play dough. Talk about volume and three-dimensionality and try to have the students build a three-dimensional form of their simplified object, 12 inches high. They could paint it after they have finished building. Display the sketches, objects, and sculptures together.
• Choose a reproduction of a painting that is fairly complex. Try removing the figures or objects in the painting in the class’s imagination, one at a time. Talk about how these removals change the meaning of the artwork.
• Collect stones, rough and smooth, large and small. Paint them all one color, or maybe two colors, with acrylic paint (it stays on better than tempera). Have each student arrange all the stones in a way that they think is meaningful. Have each student write a story about why the stones are arranged that way and what meaning the work holds for him/her. Display the arranged work and the essays together. This could also be a class exercise, where you arrange the stones one way and ask the students to create a story about the arrangement.
• Draw a piece of popcorn blown up to the size of a full sheet of paper.