Sculptor, Martin Puryear employs wood, mesh, stone and metal to create forms that resist identification. His objects and public installations are a marriage of minimalist logic with traditional ways of making. Puryear represented the United States at the Bienal de São Paulo in 1989, where his exhibition won the Grand Prize. Puryear is the recipient of numerous awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant, and the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture. Puryear was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 2007 and received an honorary doctorate from Yale University in 1994. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NY, The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. among others. He is represented by the Matthew Marks Gallery, NY.
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Born 1941 in Washington, DC.
Lives and works in Hudson Valley region, New York.
EDUCATION
B.A. Catholic University of America, 1963
Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, 1966-1968
MFA in Sculpture, Yale University, 1971
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Martin Puryear, Mathew Marks Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2020
Martin Puryear, Mathew Marks Gallery, New York, NY
2019
Liberty / Libertà, 58th Venice Biennale, United States Pavilion (catalogue)
2018
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, The Netherlands (catalogue)
Martin Puryear, Glenstone, Potomac, MD
2017
Parasol Unit, London (catalogue)
Prints 1962-2016, The Prints Center, Philadelphia
Recent Acquisitions: Martin Puryear, Prints, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME
Martin Puryear: Big Bling, Madison Square Park, New York, NY
2016
Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
2015
Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, New York
2014
In What Distant Sky, Qbox Gallery, Athens, Greece
Martin Puryear: Recent Prints, Hemphill Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Martin Puryear, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY
2012
WaterFire Art Center, The Coal Bin Project Launch, Providence, Rhode Island
Mckee Gallery, New York, New York
“T” Space, Rhinebeck, New York
2010
Prints, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
Martin Puryear Prints: Selections from the JP Morgan Chase Collection, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
2009
Kleinert/James Art Gallery, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Woodstock, NY
2008
Prints, de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA
2007
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (Traveled to Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA)
2005
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
Artworks from the Anderson Collection, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
2003
New Work, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England (Traveled to The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland)
Prints, Hemphill Gallery, Washington, DC
2002
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (Traveled to Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL; University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA; and Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA)
McKee Gallery, New York, NY
2000
The Cane Project, The Studio Museum, New York, NY
1999
Drawing into Sculpture, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
1997
Fundación “la Caixa”, Madrid, Spain
Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, WA
1995
McKee Gallery, New York, NY
1993
Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH
1991
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (Traveled to Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA)
1990
Connections, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
1989
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1988
McIntosh/Drysdale Gallery, Washington, DC
Grand Lobby Installation, Brooklyn Museum
1987
David McKee Gallery, New York, NY
Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, WA
Public and Personal, The Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Sculpture/Drawings, Carnegie Mellon University Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Grand Lobby installation, Brooklyn Museum
1985
Matrix Program, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
1984
Ten-Year Survey, University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (Traveled to: The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA; The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston, MA; New Museum, New York, NY; and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA)
1983
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
1982
McIntosh/Drysdale Gallery, Washington, DC
Young Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
1981
Delahunty Gallery, Dallas, TX
and/or Gallery, Seattle, WA
1980
Options 2, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
I-80 Series, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
Young Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
1979
Protetch-McIntosh Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1978
Protetch-McIntosh Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1977
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1973
Henri 2 Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1972
Fisk University Gallery, Nashville, TN
Henri 2 Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1968
Gröna Palletten Gallery, Stockholm
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Joan Didion: What She Means, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2021
Nasher Mixtape, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX
Recent Acquisitions: Modern and Contemporary Drawings and Prints, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY
2020
James Prosek: Art, Artifact, Artifice, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, NH
Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Making Community: Prints from Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Brodsky Center at PAFA, and Paulson Fontaine Press, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Presence: African American Artists from the Museum’s Collection, The Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, HI
PICTURE ID: Contemporary African American Works on Paper, Toledo Museum of Art, OH
2019
Five Ways In: Themes from the Collection, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Front Room: The Mary and Paul Roberts Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Rosebud, Matthew Marks Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
One hundred drawings, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY (catalogue)
Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Afrocosmologies: American Reflections, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Contemporary Art: Five Propositions, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Detroit Collects: Selections of African American Art from Private Collections, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1950–2019, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Bound to the Earth: Art, Materiality, and the Natural World, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA
2018
Modern and Contemporary Art: Selected Works from the Permanent Art Collection, University Archives Gallery, The University of the South Sewanee, TN
Contemporary Highlights, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA
Studio Visit: Selected Gifts from Agnes Gund, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Almanach 18, Le Consortium, Dijon, France
Art in Dialogue: Robert Indiana and Martin Puryear, Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL
Beyond Borders: Global Africa, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
Second Look, Twice: Selections from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
Crossroads: Carnegie Museum of Art’s Collection, 1945 to Now, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Recent Acquisitions: Paintings, Ceramics, and Works on Paper, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL
2017
One of Many: Recent Acquisitions of Prints and Portfolios, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC
2016
Approaching American Abstraction: The Fisher Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Abstracting Nature, Newark Museum, NJ
Dimensions of Black: A Collaboration with the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA
Explode Everyday: An Inquiry Into the Phenomena of Wonder, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Massachusetts
2015
Black Fire: A Constant State of Revolution, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Recent Acquisitions of Prints and Drawings Spanning 500 Years, Portland Art Museum, OR
10 Sculptures, Matthew Marks Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art: Selections from the Linda Leonard Schlenger Collection and the Yale University Art Gallery, The Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
River Crossings, Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Olana State Historic Site, Catskill and Hudson, NY
Cove: Visual Arts on Georges Island, Georges Island, MA
2014
Nuit Blanche: The Night Circus, Toronto, Canada
O Pioneers!, ArtLAB, Lawn on D, Boston, Massachusetts
Our Stories: African American Prints and Drawings, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
2013
Summer Show 2013, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary Art, Craft and Design, The Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC
Multiplicity: Contemporary Prints from the Smithsonian Art Museum, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
2012
African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center, David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
2010
A Force of Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
Line, Letter and Form, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Sculpture, McKee Gallery, New York, NY
2009
The Sculptor’s Hand, Tasende Gallery, La Jolla, CA
A Matter of Form, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Endless Renaissance, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
Die Gegenwart der Linie, Die Pinakothek der Moderne, Staatlich Graphische Sammlung München, Munich, Germany
Art at Colby: Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
Artists and the Natural World, McKee Gallery, New York, NY
New Prints 2009/Autumn, International Print Center, New York, NY
Sculpture: Chamberlain, Cornell, Flavin, Jenney, Kusama, Lewitt, Melotti and Puryear, Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, NY
2008
Origins, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peeskill, NY
Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Part II, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Art for Yale: Collecting for a new century, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
2007
Early Signs: Celmins, Puryear, Youngblood, McKee Gallery, New York, NY
Part One: 1976-1980, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
Estampes, Galerie Lelong, Paris
2006
Against the Grain: Contemporary Art from the Edward R. Broida Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Selections from the Collection of Edward R. Broida, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
2005
Sculpture: An Intuitive View, McKee Gallery, New York< NY
Africa in America, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
2004
Contemporary Art and Furniture Design in Dialogue, Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York, NY
Love/Hate: From Magritte to Cattelan: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Villa Manin, Codroipo, Italy
Gyroscope series, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Art by MacArthur Fellows, Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2003
Breathless, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, NY
New Prints: Jake Berthot, Vija Celmins, Martin Puryear, McKee Gallery, New York, NY
2002
110 Years: The Permanent Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Forth Worth, TX
Gifts in Honor of the 125th Anniversary of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA
In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI (Traveled to: Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL)
Drawings, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
New Prints: Jake Berthot, Vija Celmins, Martin Puryear, McKee Gallery, New York, NY
To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Material Differences: Contemporary Viewpoints, Museum for African Art, New York, NY
According with Nadelman: Contemporary Affinities, June Kelly Gallery, New York, NY
2001
New to the Modern: Recent Acquisitions from the Department of Drawings, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Draughtsman’s Colors: Fourteen New Acquisitions from Johns to Chong, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Yale University School of Art Alumni Choice Exhibition, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
New Land Marks: Public Art, Community, and the Meaning of Place, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2000
Celebrating Modern Art: Highlights of the Anderson Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
NEW Works, McKee Gallery, New York, NY
Strength and Diversity: A Celebration of African American Artists, Carpenter Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Making Choices, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1999
The American Century Art & Culture, 1950-2000, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Weaving the World: Contemporary Art of Linear Construction, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan
Boxes: Intimate Spaces, Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield, CT
1998
The Edward R. Broida Collection: A Selection of Works, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL
Face to Face: Art in Public, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY
Essence of the Orb, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Narratives of African American Art of the 20th Century: The David C. Driskell Collection, The Art Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park, MD
The African-American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship, The Library of Congress, Washington, DC
1997
Forma Lignea, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy
American Stories: Amidst Displacement and Transformation, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (Traveled to: Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan; Fukui Fine Arts Museum, Fukui, Japan; Kurashiki City Art Museum, Kurashiki City, Japan; Akita Preferctural Integrated Life Cultural Hall, Akita, Japan)
Envisioning the Contemporary: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Selections from the Permanent Collection: Identity/Identidad, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA
1996
Masterworks of Modern Sculpture: The Nasher Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (Traveled as A Century of Sculpture: The Nasher Collection to: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY)
Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Wanås 1996, Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden
Art in Chicago, 1945 – 1955, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Faret Tachikawa: City and Art Today, National Technical Museum, Prague, Czech Republic
1995
Twentieth Century American at The White House: Exhibition III, First Ladies’ Garden, The White House, Washington, DC
The Material Imagination, Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, NY
New Works on Paper: Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Martin Puryear, Richard Serra, Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, WA
1994
Western Artists/African Art, The Museum for African Art, New York, NY
Visions of America: Landscape as Metaphor in the Late Twentieth Century, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (Traveled to: Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH)
Putting Things Together: Recent Sculpture from the Anderson Collection, The Art Museum of Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz, CA
Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, WA
1993
Visual Arts Encounter: African Americans and Europe, Salle Clemenceau, Palais du Luxembourg, Paris, France
Collective Pursuits: Mount Holyoke Investigates Modernism, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA
Yale Collects Yale, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Living with Art: The Collection of Ellyn & Saul Dennison, The Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ
American Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913 – 1993, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany (Traveled to: Royal Academy of Arts, London, England: Saatchi Gallery, London, England)
Drawing the Line Against AIDS, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy (under the aegis of the 45th Venice Biennale) (Traveled to: Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, NY)
1992
Allegories of Modernism: Contemporary Drawing, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Process to Presence: Issues in Sculpture, 1960 to 1990, in conjunction with the 14th International Sculpture Conference, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Donald Young Gallery, Seattle
Documenta 9, Kassel, Germany
1991
Devil on the Stairs: Looking Back at the Eighties, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA (Traveled to: Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA)
Reprise: The Vera G. List Collection, David Winton Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, RI
Small Scale Sculpture, Sewell Art Gallery, Rice University, Houston, TX
1990
Black USA, Museum Overholland, Amsterdam, Holland
Selected Artists from the First 20 Years, Max Protetch Gallery, New York, NY
The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s, New Museum, New York, NY
Objects of Potential: Five American Sculptors from the Anderson Collection, Wiegand Gallery, College of Notre Dame, Belmont, CA
1989
Art in Place: 15 Years of Acquisitions, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Traditions and Transformation: Contemporary Afro-American Sculpture, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, NY
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Introspective: Contemporary American Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent, California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
New Sculpture: Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Martin Puryear, Susana Solano, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
Prints by Sculptors, Landfall Press, New York, NY
1988
From the Southern Cross: A View of World Art c. 1940-1988, 1988, Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia (Traveled to: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Private Works for Public Spaces: Drawings, Maquettes and Documentation for Unrealized Public Artworks, R.C. Erpf Gallery, New York, NY
Spectrum: Mary Beth Edelson, Martin Puryear, Italo Scanga, Robert Stackhouse, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The World of Art Today, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Innovations in Sculpture, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
SKULPTUR: Material + Abstraktion: 2 x 5 Positionen, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (Traveled to: Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland: Swiss Institute & City Gallery, Department of Cultural Affairs, New York, NY)
Enclosing the Void, Whitney Museum of American Art at Equitable Center, New York, NY
New Sculpture/Six Artists, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Scupture Inside Outside, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
1987
Structure to Resemblance: Work by Eight American Sculptors, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Fifty Years of Collecting: An Anniversary Selection of Sculpture of the Modern Era, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Emerging Artists: 1978-1986: Selection from the Exxon Series, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
1986
After Nature, Germans Van Eck Gallery, New York, NY
Sculpture on Stetson: 1986, Two Illinois Center, Chicago, IL
Natural Forms and Forces: Abstract Images in American Sculpture, Hayden Gallery, List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Individuals: A Selected History of Contemporary Art, 1945-1986, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Installations and Sculpture: Inaugural Exhibition, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
Personal References, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
1985
Chicago Sculpture International/MILE 4, State Street Mall, Chicago
Sculpture Overview 1985, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
Basically Wood, Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston, MA
Choosing: An Exhibit of Changing Perspectives in Modern Art and Art Criticism by Black Americans 1925-1985, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL (Traveled to: Chicago State University, Chicago, IL; Portsmouth Museum, Portsmouth, VA; Howard University, Washington DC)
The Artist as Social Designer: Aspects of Public Urban Art Today, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Black Creativity, Generations in Transition: 80 Years of Black American Expression, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL
Anniottanta, Invitational, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
Transformations in Sculpture: Four Decades in American and European Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Artist and Architects, Challenges in Collaboration, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH
Inaugural Exhibition, Tyler Gallery, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Sculpture Overview 1985, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
Anniottanta, Galleria Communale d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
1984
An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
American Sculpture, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
Collaborating: The Power of the Artist and Architect Co-Designing Parks, Plazas, Public Places from New York to Seattle, McIntosh/Drysdale Gallery, Houston, TX
Proposals and Projects: World Fairs, Waterfronts, Parks and Plazas, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
American Sculpture, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Primitivism” in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and Modern, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Transformation of the Minimal Style, Sculpture Center, Long Island City, New York, NY
1983
Five Artists/NOAA Collaboration, Seattle Art Museum Pavilion, Seattle, WA
Invitational Exhibition, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, NY
Beyond the Monument, Documentation of Public Art Projects and Proposals, Hayden Corridor Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
1982
Afro-American Abstraction, organized by the American Museum Association (Traveled to: P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York, NY; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, TN; The Art Center, South Bend, IN; The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA; and Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, TX)
Works in Wood, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Invitational Exhibition, Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, RI
Form and Function, Proposals for Public Art for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA
N.A.M.E. Gallery in Pittsburgh, Hewlett Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
The 74th American Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
American Abstraction Now, Richmond Institute of Contemporary Art of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Mayor Byrne’s Mile of Sculpture, International Art Exposition, Chicago, IL
1981
The New Spiritualism: Transcendent Images in Painting and Sculpture, Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York, NY (Traveled to: Jorgensen Gallery, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT; Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
City Sculpture, The Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Instruction Drawings, Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Artists’ Parks and Gardens, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Sculptural Density, Visual Arts Museum, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
1980
The Black Circle, A. Montgomery Ward Gallery, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
Chicago, Chicago, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
Afro-American Abstraction, Institute for Art and Urban resources, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York, NY(Traveled to: Everson Gallery, Syracuse, NY)
1979
Art and Architecture, Space and Structure, Protetch-McIntosh Gallery, Washington, DC
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Custom and Culture, organized by Creative Time, U.S. Customs House, New York, NY
Wave Hill: The Artist’s View, Wave Hill, New York, NY
1978
Young American Artists: 1978 Exxon National Exhibition, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
The Presence of Nature, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1977
The Material Dominant, Pennsylvania State University Museum of Art, University Park, PA
The Program in the Visual Arts, Artpark, Lewiston, NY
1974
National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC
New Talent at Maryland, The Art Gallery at University of Maryland, College Park, MD
1971
Prints and Paintings by Black Artists, Union South Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
1969
Group Exhibition, Lunn Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1968
Annual Exhibition, Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, Stockholm, Sweden
1965
Group Show, U.S.I.S. Gallery, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Annual Exhibition, Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, Stockholm, Sweden
Stockholm Biennial Exhibition, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm
1962
Annual Exhibition, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Puryear, Raymond, Termini, Adams-Morgan Gallery, Washington, DC
AWARDS
2012
National Medal of Arts and Humanities, Washington, D.C.
2008
LongHouse Medal, LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, NY
Awarded Second Place for “Best Monographic Museum Show in NYC,” AICA
2007
Gold Medal for Sculpture, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
2006
Sculpture Center Gala, honoring Martin Puryear, Long Island City, NY
2005
Grabhorn Institute, San Francisco, CA
2003
Institute Honors for Collaborative Acheivement, American Institute of Architects, New York, NY
Selected as juror for the World Trade Center Memorial Competition, New York, NY
2002
Awarded Second Place for “Best Show in a Commerical Gallery in NYC,” International Association of Art Critics USA (AICA)
1994
Honorary Degree, Yale University, New Haven, CT
1993
College Art Association Award for distinguished body of work
1992-1993
Residency at the Atelier Calder, Saché, France, at the invitation of the French Ministry of Culture
1992
Elected to The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
1990
Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, ME
1989
Creative Arts Awards in Sculpture, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Receives John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship Award, Chicago, IL
Grand Prize, São Paulo Bienal, Brazil
1988
The Francis J. Greenburger Foundation Award
1982
Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant
1979
Residency at Yaddo Invitational Community for Artists, Composers and Writers, Saratoga Springs, NY
1978
Creative and Performing Artists Grant, University of Maryland
1977-1978
Individual Artist Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
Awarded studio in P.S.1, Long Island City, NY, Institute for Art and Urban Resources
1977
Change, Inc., Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Grant
1976-1977
CAPS Grant in Sculpture, New York Creative Artists Public Service Program
1975
Creative and Performing Artists Grant, University of Maryland
1967
American-Scandinavian Foundation Study Grant
1969-1971
Grant for graduate study, Yale University, New Haven, CT
1962
Baltimore Museum of Art Purchase Prize, MD
Martin Puryear
Untitled (State II)
2014
Color softground etching with drypoint and chine colle.
Image Size: 24" x 18"
Paper Size: 35" x 28"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
End (Beijing)
2013
Color hardground, aquatint,
drypoint and softground etching.
Rives paper
Image size 24" x 18"
Paper size 35" x 28"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
From Above (Beijing)
2013
Color hardground etching
with aquatint and drypoint.
Rives paper
Image size 18" x 24"
Paper size 29" x 34"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
Side (Beijing)
2013
Color hardground etching with aquatint and drypoint.
Rives paper
Image size 24" x 24"
Paper size 35" x 34"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
Diallo
2013
Color flatbite, aquatint, drypoint
and softground etching.
Rives BFK paper
Image size 24" x 18"
Paper size 35" x 28"
Edition of 50
Martin Puryear
Lean To
2012
Color softground and hardground
etching with spitbite aquatint, drypoint and chine collè.
Somerset white paper
Image size 14" x 30.5"
Paper size 24" x 39.5"
Edition of 50
Martin Puryear
Phrygian (Cap In The Air)
2012
Color softground etching with spitbite aquatint,
aquatint and drypoint.
Somerset white paper
Image size 24" x 18"
Paper size 35" x 28"
Edition of 50
Martin Puryear
Untitled VI (State 1)
2012
Color softground etching with drypoint and
spitbite aquatint.
Rives BFK paper
Image size 32" x 32"
Paper size 43" x 41"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
Untitled VI (State 2)
2012
Color softground etching with drypoint and
spitbite aquatint.
Rives BFK paper
Image size 32" x 32"
Paper size 43" x 41"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
Black Cart
2008
Color softground and hardground etching with aquatint, spitbite aquatint and chine collé.
Somerset white textured paper
Image size 24" x 18"
Paper size 35" x 28"
Edition of 50
Martin Puryear
Shoulders (State 2)
2005
Softground etching with drypoint and chine collé.
Image size 18" x 24"
Paper size 29" x 34"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
Untitled V
2005
Color softground etching with aquatint.
Image size 18" x 24"
Paper size 29" x 34"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
Loop
2002
Softground etching with
drypoint and chine collé.
Somerset White Textured Paper
Image size: 8 ½" x 6 7/8"
Paper size: 16 ½" x 13 7/8 “
Edition of 35
Martin Puryear
Profile
2002
Softground etching with
drypoint and chine collé.
Somerset white textured paper
Image size 24" x 18"
Paper size 35" x 28"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
Shoulders
2002
Softground etching with
chine collé.
Somerset White Paper
Image size: 18" x 24"
Paper size: 29" x 34"
Edition of 25
Martin Puryear
Three Holes
2002
Color softground etching with spitbite aquatint.
Somerset white textured paper
Image size 18" x 24"
Paper size 29" x 34"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
Untitled I
2002
Aquatint.
Rives Lightweight Buff paper
Image size 4 5/8" x 6"
Paper size 12 5/8" x 14"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
Untitled II
2002
Color spitbite aquatint with hardground etching,
drypoint and chine collé.
Somerset white textured paper
Image size 24" x 18"
Paper size 35" x 28"
Edition of 25
Martin Puryear
Untitled III (State 1)
2002
Color spitbite aquatint with softground etching
and chine collé.
Somerset white textured paper
Image size 24" x 18"
Paper size 35" x 28"
Edition of 25
Martin Puryear
Untitled III (State 2)
2002
Softground etching with
chine collé.
Somerset white textured paper
Image size 24" x 18"
Paper size 35" x 28"
Edition of 25
Martin Puryear
Untitled IV
2002
Color spitbite aquatint and soapground etching
with drypoint and chine collé.
Somerset White Paper
Image size: 8 5/8" x 6 7/8"
Paper size: 16 5/8" x 13 7/8 “
Edition of 35
Martin Puryear
Jug
2001
Spitbite aquatint with drypoint and chine collé.
Somerset White paper
Image size 24" x 18"
Paper size 35" x 28"
Edition of 40
Martin Puryear
Untitled
2001
Color hardground and softground etching
with drypoint and chine collé.
Somerset White paper
Image size 24" x 18"
Paper size 35" x 28"
Edition of 40