Martin Puryear - Margo A Crutchfield

"Amidst the continually shifting postmodernist landscape, Martin Puryear has maintained a constant and singular vision: unafraid of beauty, the well-made object, and the viability of meaning in art and in our world, he is without question one of America's pre-eminent sculptors." - from the Introduction. Puryear has always stood apart, outside the prevailing trends in the contemporary art world. Since the mid-1970s, he has created an outstanding body of sculpture that builds on the tradition of organic abstraction. Carrying this tradition forward, Puryear incorporates a minimalist simplicity of form and an emphasis on process and materials that aligns him with post minimalist sculptors. His approach to making sculpture is based on traditional craft techniques. Rather than carving or casting, his primary interest is in building, constructing, and assembling - using accumulative processes such as wrapping, tying, and weaving, or lamination and joinery. This catalog focuses on a selection of works from the 1990s through the end of 2000, most of them marked by increasing assertiveness, scale, and volume.;To encounter Martin Puryear's sculptures is to experience a world of powerful yet richly ambiguous objects.