Boston
The first major exhibition of Martin Puryear’s work in nearly 20 years, “Nexus” (on view through February 8, 2026) features a discerning selection of 50 sculptures, preparatory drawings, and prints that highlight his aesthetic evolution through materials and mediums. As the title implies, interconnection is key, not only to the work itself, as Puryear skillfully ranges across techniques like carving, latticework, and weaving, but also to the inspirations behind it. Beginning with works from the early 1960s, the show traces innovations in form, materials, and process, concluding with an insightful documentary film by Edgar Howard that highlights the construction of Lookout (2023), Puryear’s masterfully crafted, site-specific commission at Storm King Art Center created from layers of red bricks laid using thin-shell masonry techniques.
“Nexus” is a quiet display, its spaces permeated by the inviting ambiguity of sculptures made primarily from cedar and poplar. Although natural tones dominate, Puryear occasionally integrates strong color into his forms. The distinctive shape of Big Phrygian (2010–14), for example, is painted a bold red, the color underscoring the reference to a Phrygian cap—the historical symbol of liberty associated with the French and American Revolutions. Puryear drew specific inspiration from an 18th-century engraving of a freed slave wearing the cap, captioned Moi libre aussi (I am free, too).
Throughout the galleries, line and volume activate form and space, as the works collectively evoke a subtle yet powerful primordial resonance through the use of raw wood, tar, wire mesh, and stone. A significant unifying element of Puryear’s work is its relation to the natural world. As he told me in 1987, when I was curating his exhibition for the Carnegie Mellon Art Gallery: “I…continue to be fascinated with the power of nature…it is my background, and it is the base of my expression.”
Beyond the physical presence of inventively manipulated wood, echoes of organic forms can be seen throughout the show, particularly the recurring motif of a gyrfalcon. A bird of prey in the genus Falco and the largest species of the falcon family, the gyrfalcon has fascinated Puryear since childhood. In On the Tundra (1986), a stunning cast iron form suggests a falcon perched on a rock, inspired in part by a 1619 portrait of a gyrfalcon by the Mughal court painter Mansur in the MFA’s collection.On the Tundra (Winter) (2022) reinterprets the original sculpture in white marble.
Puryear approaches making work as a problem-solving arena, drawing on processes and material cultures from across the globe. According to Ian Alteveer, Beal Family Chair of the Department of Contemporary Art, “He’s interested in everything from African architecture and artifacts to Scandinavian woodworking…everything from weaving baskets to building ships to making barrels, and all of that comes through in the ways in which his work takes shape.” Style has never been of any interest to Puryear, nor has any art movement. Only what he calls “the process of construction” is essential. As he explained to me: “I enjoy and need to work with my hands, with tools, and understanding space…they give you a measure of the extensions of the mind and keep ideas of the work connected to the man making them. As I work on a particular piece, it evolves slowly into its own unique statement of invention.”
While Puryear’s forms may hint at the figurative, the language of abstraction has always been his vehicle for structural realizations that transcend any particular artistic style, or easy interpretation. Although allusions to specific political issues are not obvious, real people and events have influenced some pieces, albeit in different ways. In Some Lines for Jim Beckwourth (1978), rawhide strips are lined up like a musical composition. Beckwourth was born into slavery in Virginia in 1798, was emancipated by his slave owner father, and went on to become a trapper, rancher, and entrepreneur who played a major role in the exploration of the American West. Puryear labored over the rawhide in the same way that Beckwourth himself would have cleaned, dried, and worked it. A Column for Sally Hemings (2021) pays tribute to the enslaved woman who had children with Thomas Jefferson. Created for the 2019 Venice Biennale, it resonated powerfully in the U.S. pavilion, which is modeled after Monticello. A compelling presence continues to surround the smaller, marble version installed here, composed of a fluted column of tapering marble, pierced at the top by an iron stake with a shackle.
Many of Puryear’s constructions suggest contradiction. Confessional (1996–2000), which will only be shown in the MFA presentation, echoes earlier works in the rawness of its materials. Made of wire mesh enclosed with tar, wood, and steel rods, the hollow construction creates an inner space both visible and obscured. The title evokes a private or sacred closed space, like a Catholic confessional, where sins might be admitted and forgiven. A small wooden platform at the entrance to the looming, almost ominous form, seems to ask the viewer to kneel. Specific transgressions are left to the imagination, just like potential punishments and the likelihood of absolution.
Together, Puryear’s three-dimensional forms create a tapestry of interrelated languages and ideas unfolding over time. Imbued with a private, resonant inventiveness, his works present enigmatic metaphorical puzzles that conjure shelters, bodies, and monuments, as well as ideas of survival, ritual, and deliverance. These profoundly reflective and original explorations seamlessly connect formal concerns with complex themes of identity, history, and the African diaspora, to the emotional and conceptual enrichment of both. —Elaine A. King
“Nexus” will be on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art from April 12–August 9, 2026, followed by a presentation at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
