Martin Puryear: Nexus highlights the global histories that have inspired Puryear’s practice, offering a fresh and timely perspective on his impactful body of work. While accentuating the work’s visual allure, this exhibition and its accompanying catalogue look beyond form. The exhibition’s interpretive frame, rooted in new scholarship, sheds light on the ways that the artist’s unique visual vocabulary has been shaped by his enduring interests in global traditions of material culture, African American history, and the natural world.
Martin Puryear: Nexus
Martin Puryear, Alien Huddle, 1993 - 1995. 53 x 64 x 53 in.
Martin Puryear, Nexus, 2010 - 2014. Painted red cedar, 58 x 40 x 76 in. Photo by Ron Amstutz. ©
Martin Puryear, On the Tundra, 1986. Castiron, 195x95x115in.
Martin Puryear, Bower, 1980. Sitka spruce, pine, copper tacks, 64 5/16 x 94 9/16 x 26 in.
Martin Puryear, Hibernian Testosterone, 2018. Painted cast aluminum, American cypress, 57 x 141 x 44 1/2 in. Photo by Ron Amstutz. ©
Martin Puryear, Aso Oke, 2019. Bronze, 84 x 103 x 74 1/2 in. Photo by Matthew Marks Gallery.
1964
Philip Johnson commissioned Warhol to make a large-scale work for the exterior for his pavilion for the New York World’s Fair, along with other artists. Warhol’s provocative response, a multiple portrait of ‘Most Wanted Men’ was installed a few days before the opening but was deemed too inflammatory and contrary to the upbeat image of the World’s Fair and the work was taken down.