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Martin Puryear
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.
Puryear has participated in the Whitney Biennial three times and he has represented the United States multiple times with solo exhibitions at international biennials, including in 1989 at the São Paulo Biennial and in 2019 at the 58th Venice Biennale.
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. Puryear was the eldest of seven children, with four brothers and two sisters.
Puryear attended Syphax Elementary in Washington before going on to graduate from Archbishop Carroll High School, a Catholic school in the Brookland neighborhood. He began exploring traditional craft methods in his youth, making guitars, canoes, and furniture. Puryear enrolled at the District of Columbia Teachers College in Fall 1958, primarily taking science courses. He transferred to The Catholic University of America after two years, originally studying biology before switching to art as a junior with a focus on painting. 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.
After graduation, Puryear spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone. 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. 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. Puryear graduated from Yale in 1971 with an MFA in sculpture. Although he discovered Minimalism at a formative period in his development, Puryear would ultimately reject its impersonality and formalism.
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.
Puryear staged his first solo art exhibition in the United States in January 1972 at the Henri 2 Gallery in Washington. The show received positive coverage from local critics.
Puryear staged his second solo exhibition at Henri 2 Gallery in 1973. 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.
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Martin Puryear
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.
Puryear has participated in the Whitney Biennial three times and he has represented the United States multiple times with solo exhibitions at international biennials, including in 1989 at the São Paulo Biennial and in 2019 at the 58th Venice Biennale.
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. Puryear was the eldest of seven children, with four brothers and two sisters.
Puryear attended Syphax Elementary in Washington before going on to graduate from Archbishop Carroll High School, a Catholic school in the Brookland neighborhood. He began exploring traditional craft methods in his youth, making guitars, canoes, and furniture. Puryear enrolled at the District of Columbia Teachers College in Fall 1958, primarily taking science courses. He transferred to The Catholic University of America after two years, originally studying biology before switching to art as a junior with a focus on painting. 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.
After graduation, Puryear spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone. 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. 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. Puryear graduated from Yale in 1971 with an MFA in sculpture. Although he discovered Minimalism at a formative period in his development, Puryear would ultimately reject its impersonality and formalism.
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.
Puryear staged his first solo art exhibition in the United States in January 1972 at the Henri 2 Gallery in Washington. The show received positive coverage from local critics.
Puryear staged his second solo exhibition at Henri 2 Gallery in 1973. 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.