Martin Puryear

Martin Puryear was born in Washington, DC, in 1941 and lives and works in upstate New York. 

Martin Puryear began working with wood at a young age, making small objects and musical instruments. In the 1960s, he traveled to West Africa, where he incorporated techniques learned from local craftspeople into his woodworking before going to Sweden to study printmaking. Back in the United States, he developed an interest in Minimalism, rejecting its impersonal approach to production and its choice of materials while retaining its essential principles, in keeping with Mies van der Rohe’s “less is more.” Yet it would be reductive to define his work solely in formalist terms, given the range of techniques he employs, the elegance and mastery of his sculptural practice, and the wealth of symbolic references that run throughout his work. The simplicity of forms, his exceptional technical skill, and his deep commitment to craftsmanship have been central to Puryear’s enduring reputation in the art world.