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Martin Puryear Art

American, b. 1941

One of the most lauded contemporary American sculptors, Martin Puryear (b. 1941) has had — and continues to have — an impressive career. 

Born in Washington, D.C., where he earned a fine art degree from the Catholic University of America in 1963, Puryear started his journey not in fine art, but in craft. As a teen, he learned how to build everything from furniture to musical instruments to canoes. Later, following his undergraduate work, he joined the Peace Corps as a volunteer in Sierra Leone and learned traditional craft methods, including pottery, weaving and woodworking. He then studied printmaking in Sweden before returning to the United States and earning his MFA from Yale University’s School of Art and Architecture. There, he specialized in sculpture.

Blending minimalism with the craft arts, Puryear’s work is often abstract and large scale. His sculptures of hemp rope, wood, bronze and more are studies of both form and material. And beneath the surface, his works touch upon complicated topics, including religion and Black history: Several of his pieces acknowledge iconic Black figures such as Sally Hemings (Thomas Jefferson’s slave and mother to six of his children) and Booker T. Washington, a former slave who became a prominent leader in the Black community and founded what is now Tuskegee University.

Puryear represented the United States at the 1989 Bienal de São Paulo, where he won the festival’s Grand Prize, and at the 2019 Venice Biennale. He has also received the National Medal of Arts, the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture. Puryear’s works can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields in Indiana and the Anderson Collection at Stanford University in California.

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Artist: Martin Puryear
Los Angeles Olympic Games 1984 (hand signed with official Olympic Committee COA)
By Martin Puryear
Located in New York, NY
Martin Puryear Los Angeles Olympic Games 1984, 1982 Offset Lithograph on Parsons Diploma Parchment Paper Hand signed on the front with COA, Edition of 750 (though only approximately 200-250 remain) 21 × 34 1/2 inches Unframed This limited edition, pencil signed offset lithograph was published in a limited edition of 750, and printed as one of the fifteen Official Fine Art Olympic Posters for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. A statement released by the 1984 Olympic committee explains the set as follows - "The posters commissioned for the 1984 Olympics contain an enlightened selection of the best American artists with special emphasis on those who work in Southern California...As the Games develop, transpire and pass into memory, these fifteen posters contain the images, forms and symbols that will represent the 1984 Olympics in the museums, galleries, homes and the minds of people all over the world.” Printed and Published by Knapp Communications Corporation and includes Certificate of Authenticity from the publisher. This work is NOT to be confused with the ubiquitous plate signed poster of the same image, which was printed on different paper in an open edition.) In 1982, the Olympic Committee commissioned 15 artists to create posters for the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Hockney designed this offset lithograph depicting Olympic swimming...
Category

1980s Contemporary Martin Puryear Art

Materials

Parchment Paper, Lithograph, Offset

Lean To
By Martin Puryear
Located in San Francisco, CA
Edition of 50
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Martin Puryear Art

Materials

Etching

Side (Beijing)
By Martin Puryear
Located in Berkeley, CA
COLOR HARDGROUND ETCHING WITH AQUATINT AND DRYPOINT. RIVES BFK PAPER IMAGE SIZE: 24” x 24”; PAPER SIZE: 35” x 34” EDITION OF 40
Category

2010s Martin Puryear Art

Materials

Etching

End (Beijing)
By Martin Puryear
Located in Berkeley, CA
COLOR HARDGROUND ETCHING WITH AQUATINT AND DRYPOINT. RIVES BFK PAPER IMAGE SIZE: 24” x 18”; PAPER SIZE: 35” x 28” EDITION OF 40
Category

2010s Martin Puryear Art

Materials

Etching

From Above (Beijing)
By Martin Puryear
Located in Berkeley, CA
COLOR HARDGROUND ETCHING WITH AQUATINT AND DRYPOINT. RIVES BFK PAPER IMAGE SIZE: 18” x 24”; PAPER SIZE: 29” x 34” EDITION OF 40
Category

2010s Martin Puryear Art

Materials

Etching

Drawing for Sanctuary
By Martin Puryear
Located in San Francisco, CA
Framed: 24 1/2 x 21 5/8 inches
Category

1980s Martin Puryear Art

Materials

Pencil

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Stanley William Hayter, 'Expansion', color etching and soft-ground, 1970, edition 100, Black & Moorhead 334. Signed, titled, dated, and numbered '23/50' in pencil. A superb, richly inked impression with fresh, vivid colors on heavy off-white wove paper; the full sheet with margins (2 to 2 1/2 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 17 1/8 x 19 7/16 inches (435 x 494 mm); sheet size 22 x 23 1/2 inches (559 x 597 mm). This innovative graphic work was created in the first state using a plate covered with a plastic sheet; the sheet was cut, and the soft-ground texture was added. In the second state, the plate was covered again, and the sheet cut then etched with a deep bite, and a soft ground texture was added. Printed by Hector Saunier: intaglio fluorescent orange, hard roller phthalo green, soft roller transparent yellow. Note: the online image cannot accurately convey the vibrancy of the printed fluorescent orange. ABOUT THE ARTIST Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988) was a British painter and printmaker associated in the 1930s with Surrealism and from 1940 onward with Abstract Expressionism. Regarded as one of the most significant printmakers of the 20th century, Hayter founded the legendary Atelier 17 studio in Paris, now known as Atelier Contrepoint. Among the artists he is credited with influencing are Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, and Marc Chagall. The hallmark of the workshop was its egalitarian structure, breaking sharply with the traditional French engraving studios by insisting on a cooperative approach to labor and technical discoveries. In 1929 Hayter was introduced to Surrealism by Yves Tanguy and André Masson, who, with other Surrealists, worked with Hayter at Atelier 17. The often violent imagery of Hayter’s Surrealist period was stimulated in part by his passionate response to the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Fascism. He organized portfolios of graphic works to raise funds for the Spanish cause, including Solidarité (Paris, 1938), a portfolio of seven prints, one of them by Picasso. Hayter frequently exhibited with the Surrealists during the 1930s but left the movement when Paul Eluard was expelled. Eluard’s poem Facile Proie (1939) was written in response to a set of Hayter’s engravings. Other writers with whom Hayter collaborated in this way included Samuel Beckett and Georges Hugnet. Hayter joined the exile of the Parisian avant-garde in 1939, moving with his second wife, the American sculptor Helen Phillips...
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Previously Available Items
Cane by Jean Toomer
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PURYEAR, Martin. Cane. By Jean Toomer. 141, [3] pp. Illustrated with 10 woodcuts by Martin Puryear, and an afterword by Leon LF. Litwack. Oblong folio, bound in original tan clo...
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Dark Loop
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Dark Loop, 1982 Woodcut on ivory Japanese paper 20 1/2 × 27 4/5 in 52.1 × 70.6 cm Edition of 2/2 (A.P.) This work is in pristine mint condition and would come with a COA and apprais...
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Untitled (LA MoCA Portfolio)
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Martin Puryear Art

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By Martin Puryear
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Category

Martin Puryear Art

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Pencil, Paper

Phrygian
By Martin Puryear
Located in San Francisco, CA
Edition of 50
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Martin Puryear Art

Martin Puryear art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Martin Puryear available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Martin Puryear in etching, aquatint, drypoint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Martin Puryear, so small editions measuring 14 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Richard Tuttle, James Brooks, and Paul Burlin. Martin Puryear prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $2,500 and tops out at $60,000, while the average work can sell for $8,000.

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