Martin Puryear

In thinking about artists that are held in respect amongst their contemporaries despite their use of traditional materials I think of Martin Puryear. I respect Puryear’s need to preserve inherited sculptural traditions and techniques, and transmit these into the present. I feel with artists like Tom Joyce this thought is present also and is an idea that I constantly think about in terms of my earlier work in iron and my hopes to revisit that material again.

I enjoy hearing Mathew Kangas’ words on Puryear. He talks about Puryear’s work not just being silent shapes: they affirm humanity’s encounter with materials and the very origins of art in the handmade. I just find it refreshing when I see a sculptor who has mastered his craft and sticks to his material and plows their own way.

So what we are talking about here is my appreciation for material, something that will always be apart of my practice, and something that I cannot and will not be removed from. Other critics talk of Puryear’s love for material, such as Castro is Sculpture magazine whom talks about Martin in the magic of his art, honoring the skill and dignity of other makers who know and feel with their hands and hearts what lies in the soul– their soul– and the material at hands soul. I think this is a really clear way of describing the presence that is felt when investing time into a material. I have often tried to portray the “soul” of my material with my castings, titling them with titles that would refer to a human emotion or condition. It is nice to be able to put some Contemporary light on that subject.

Castro, Jan G. "Spirit, Personhood and History." Sculpture Jan.-Feb. 2008: 54-57. Print.

Collins, Judith. Sculpture Today. London: Phaidon, 2007. Print.

Harper, Glenn, and Twylene Moyer. A Sculpture Reader: Contemporary Sculpture since 1980. Hamilton, NJ: ISC, 2006. Print.