Martin Puryear’s objects and public installations—in wood, stone, tar, wire, and various metals—are a marriage of minimalist logic with traditional ways of making. Puryear’s evocative, dreamlike explorations in abstract forms retain vestigial elements of utility from everyday objects found in the world. In the massive stone piece, Untitled, Puryear enlisted a local stonemason to help him construct a building-like structure on a ranch in northern California. On one side of the work is an eighteen-foot-high wall—on the other side, an inexplicable stone bulge. A favorite form that occurs in Puryear’s work, the thick-looking stone bulge is surprisingly hollow, coloring the otherwise sturdy shape with qualities of uncertainty, emptiness, and loss.

4 VideosSeriesFeatured Artist(s)Date

"Big Bling"

Martin Puryear

4:43
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"Big Bling"

Martin Puryear

6/10/2016

Printmaking

Martin Puryear

3:35
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Printmaking

Martin Puryear

2/22/2013

Time

53:40

9/17/2003

Martin Puryear in "Time"

13:41
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9/17/2003