Martin Puryear: Evocative Minimalist

If you haven't heard of Martin Puryear, you must! Mr. Puryear, b. 1941 in Washington, DC, is exhibiting new sculpture at the Donald Young Gallery in Chicago, Saturday, December 10, 2005 to Saturday, February 11, 2006.

This is an artist whose work evokes the essence of things and ideas using the most unexpected media. As such, I personally find his work unique, inspiring, and a breath of fresh air in these politically-charged times when African American art, in order to be taken seriously, must limit itself to a literal expression of the 'black struggle', or various aspects of black culture. Martin Puryear showed me that African American artists have as much claims to creative license as any other artist throughout the world. "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." Read more about Martin Puryear at Art: 21.