A Window In: Martin Puryear

Big Bling 2017

Martin Puryear is one of the foremost influential sculptors of the late 20th century. His work is steeped in design and craftsmanship. Get insight into the creation of his work Big Bling here. 

Puryear earned his BA from Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. in 1963 and his MFA from Yale University in 1971. After serving in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone (1964–1966), he attended the Swedish Royal Academy of Fine Arts (1966–1968). The Museum of Modern Art in New York organized a retrospective of his work in 2007. Puryear has received, among others, the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture (1980), a Louis Comfort Tiffany and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1989). He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1992) and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Yale University (1994). Puryear represented the United States in the 2019 Venice Biennale. The artist lives and works in the Hudson Valley region of New York.

Big Bling was commissioned by Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York, and was exhibited in 2016-17 by Mad. Sq. Art, the contemporary art program of Madison Square Park Conservancy.

South Dallas Cultural Center presents A Window In: A look at Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora. Each week, SDCC will feature a curated list of videos from ART 21: Art in the Twenty First Century that highlight artists of the African Diaspora. From topics of Power and Truth to Love and Loss, these artists explore and expand the bounds of what art is and could be.