Martin Puryear Quotes

United States, Sculptor
May 23, 1941

Martin Puryear (born May 23, 1941) is an American artist known for his devotion to traditional craft. Working in wood and bronze, among other media, his reductive technique and meditative approach challenge the physical and poetic boundaries of his materials.:54–57 The artist has been selected to represent the United States at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

Also known as Artist, Illustrator

I felt it was part of the spirit of the whole program to do more than simply make an object.

Martin Puryear
The fire was followed by a period of grieving and then by an incredible lightness, freedom, and mobility.

Martin Puryear
- Freedom
- Fire
- Period

I think of moving as a kind of saving grace.

Martin Puryear
- Moving
Although idea and form are ultimately paramount in my work, so too are chance, accident, and rawness.

Martin Puryear
- Work
I was never interested in making cool, distilled, pure objects.

Martin Puryear
- Cool
I realized it wasn't necessary to work in the traditional methods of carving and casting.

Martin Puryear
- Work
The site I landed on feels much more isolated than it really is; it's almost magical. Within its limited radius, there was a whole range of the local ecology.

Martin Puryear
The work is flowing from an inner knowing of how things really are.

Martin Puryear
- Work

At a certain point, I just put the building and the art impulse together. I decided that building was a legitimate way to make sculpture.

Martin Puryear
- Art
- Together