A Long Overdue Retrospective of one of America's greatest living artists.


Martin Puryear. Martin Puryear, like Louise Bourgeois , defies categories and this makes him a challenge for anyone organizing an exhibition or a book for that matter. His workmanship is outstanding and this tends to lead viewer astray into thinking that fine finish is really what he is after. His thought provoking sculptures appear so simple, yet they are both artistically and techinically complex. This book is an outstanding example of what can be done when those producing the book understand the work of the artist they are trying to disaplay.

This artist gives me hope for our world.


Martin Puryear. Being at the opening of this show at moma was an amazingly wonderful and magical evening. Went to the very exciting opening of this show in NYC and it was truly uplifting to my soul, a very inspired exhibit!!

Emotional content mixed with organic elements of expression. Amazing accomplishment. He is a 30 year ago Art school friend of my friend.

For me it was like a immensely large tree [the art show] growing in the middle of a cement Jungle [NYC]. Signs of life, expression, that are giving me hope .

I Highly recommend this show, and while I agree that moma may not be the best place to show his work, the contrast to that place was so striking that his work seemed very alive and sprouting right through the dullness.

I like this quote from a review:
Unlike other sculptors his age who emerged in the post-minimalist era, he values what he can make with his hands. His efforts are not just conceptual but physical. As critic Michael Brenson once observed, ''Puryear has the ability to make sculpture that is known by the body before it is articulated by the mind."