Martin Puryear Exhibition at the National Gallery in DC

Ad Astra, 2007

You see the works of Martin Puryear, you think at Brâncusi. Not only because of the wood: also the same feeling of primary countryside world, of the essential, the basics. A wheel, a cart, a crate, a basket, that's it. Simplicity, purity, the primary universe, in the same time an astonishing subtlety.

However, the two artists are very different. Brâncusi created a new geometry and recreated the world. Puryear is amazed while carving in the world of wood and plays with wizardry.

Maroon, 1987-1988
wire mesh, pine, yellow poplar, tar

Malediction, completed in 2007
thin sheets of red cedar, its knifelike edges protruding from the wall

C.F.A.O. 2006/2007
painted and unpainted pine and found wheelborrow

Timber's Turn, 1987
Honduras mahogany, red cedar, and Douglas fir

(Contemporary Art)
(Washington DC National Gallery of Art)