1941 Born in Washington, D.C.
1963 Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., B.A. in Art
1964-1966 Travels to Sierra Leone, West Africa, with the Peace Corps
1966-1968 Swedish Royal Academy of Art, Stockholm Sweden
1969-1971 Yale University, School of Art and Architecture, New Haven,
CT , M.F.A in Sculpture
1973-1977 Studio in Brooklyn, NY
1977 Completes first major outdoor sculpture commission for Artpark,
Lewiston, NY
A fire in the Brooklyn studio damaged and destroyed many works of sculpture
1978 Moves to Chicago, IL
1982 "Bodark Art," a major outdoor sculpture commission for
the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park, Governors State University, University
Park, IL
1983 Travels to Japan on a John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
1989 Awarded Grand Prize at the 1989 Sao Paulo Bienal, Brazil
1990 Leaves Chicago and moves to New York State
1992-1993 Works at the Calder Atelier, Sache, France, at the invitation
of the French Government
1997 Residency at the American Academy in Rome, Italy
MAJOR MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
1977
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1980
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago,IL
* Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
1984
* Ten year survey traveling exhibition:
University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
The La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
1985
University Art Museum, Matrix Program, Berkeley, CA
1987
* Martin Puryear: Public and Personal, The Chicago Public Library, IL
Martin Puryear: Sculpture & Works on Paper, Carnegie Mellon University
Art Gallery, Pittsburgh
1989
The 20th International Sao Paulo Bienal, Representing the United States,
Sao Paulo, Brazil (Winner of Grand Prize)
1990
Connections: Martin Puryear, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1991-1992
* Martin Puryear, Art Institute of Chicago, traveled to:
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
1993-1994
Martin Puryear, The Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, OH
1997
* Martin Puryear, Fundacio La Caixa, Madrid, Spain
1999
The American Century Art & Culture 1900-2000, Part II, 1950-2000,
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
2001-2002
* Martin Puryear, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond: travels to
Miami Art Museum, FL; University of California, Berkeley Art Museum,
CA; Seattle Art Museum, WA
ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
1968
Grona Palletten Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
1972
Fisk University Gallery, Nashville, TN
Henri Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1973
Henri Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1978
Protetch-McIntosh Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1979
Protetch-McIntosh Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1980
Young-Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
1981
Delahunty Gallery, Dallas, TX
and/or Gallery, Seattle
1982
McIntosh-Drysdale Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Young-Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
1983
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
1985
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
1987
David McKee Gallery, New York
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
1988
New Wall Sculpture, McIntosh/Drysdale Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1989
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1995
McKee Gallery, New York
1997
Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, WA
1997-1998
* Forma Lignea, American Academy in Rome, Italy
1999
Martin Puryear: Drawing into Sculpture, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati,
OH
2000
Martin Puryear: The Cane Project, The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY
INSTALLATIONS AND SPECIAL PROJECTS
1977
Box and Pole, Installation at Artpark, Lewiston, NY. Temporary installation.
1978
Commission, Macomb Community College, Warren, MI. Permanent installation.
1979
Equivalent, Wave Hill Environmental Center and Sculpture Gardens, NY.Temporary
installation.
1980
Proposal for Duncan Plaza, New Orleans, LA.
1981
Pavilion in the Trees, Proposal for Clivendon Park, Philadelphia, PA,
Fairmount Park Art
1982
Association. Dedicated October 26, 1993.
1982
Bodark Arc, Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park, Governors State University
Foundation. Permanent installation.
Sentinel, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA. Permanent installation.
1983
Knoll for NOAA, National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration,
Western Regional Center, Seattle, WA. Permanent installation.
1984
River Road Ring, City of Chicago, Chicago Transit Authority. Permanent
installation.
York College, Queens, NY. Permanent installation.
Chevy Chase Garden Plaza, Chevy Chase, MD. Permanent installation
1991
Griot New York, Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY. Set and costume designs
in a collaboration with Garth Fagan, Wynton Marsalis, and the Garth
Fagan Dance Company.
1992
Documenta 1992, Kassel, Germany
1994
Belvedere Park, Battery Park City, New York, on Hudson River opposite
Statue of Liberty.
Commission for Steven Oliver Art Center, San Francisco.
Everything that Rises, Permanent installation University of Washington
Public Art Commission, Seattle, WA
1996
Meditation in a Beech Wood, Stiftelsen Wanas Utstalliningar, Wanas Foundation,Knislinge,
Sweden. Permanent installation.
1997
Bearing Witness, Reagan Building, Federal Triangle, Washington, D.C.
Courtyard for the New School for Social Research, New York
1999
This Mortal Coil, Installation Project, Eglise Salpetriere, Festival
d'Automne, Paris, France
1999-2000
That Profile and Martin Puryear: Commission for the Getty Center, J.
Paul Getty Museum,Los Angeles, CA
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Des Moines Art Center, IA
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Milwaukee Art Museum, WI
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
Seattle Art Museum, WA
The Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, VA
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
GRANTS AND AWARDS
1962
Baltimore Museum of Art Purchase Prize Baltimore, MD
1967
Scandinavian-American Foundation Study Grant
1969-1971
Yale University, grant for graduate study
1975
Creative and Performing Artists Grant, University of Maryland
1976-1977
CAPS Grant in Sculpture, New York Creative Artists Public Service Program
1977
Change, Inc., Robert Rauchenberg Foundation Grant
1977-1978
National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Artist FellowshipAwarded
studio in P.S. 1, Long Island City, New York, Institute for Art and
Urban Resources
1978
Creative and Performing Artists Grant, University of Maryland
1979
Residency at Yaddo Invitational Community for Artists, Composers and
Writers,Saratoga Springs, New York
1982
Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant
The John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant
1988
The Francis J. Greenburger Foundation Award
1989
Creative Arts Awards, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
john and Catherine MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, IL
Grand Prize, Sao Paulo Bienal
1990
Skowhegan Award
1992
Elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
1993
College Art Association Award
1994
Honorary Degree, Yale University, New Haven, CT
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1962
Annual Exhibition, Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
Puryear, Raymond, Termini, Adams-Morgan Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1965
Group Show, U.S.I.S. Gallery, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Annual Exhibition, Swedish Academy of Art
Stockholm Biennial Exhibition, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Sweden
1968
Annual Exhibition, Swedish Academy of Art, Stockholm, Sweden
1969
Group Show, Lunn Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1971
Prints and Paintings by Black Artists, University of Wisconsin, Madison
1974
New Talent at Maryland, University of Maryland, College Park
1974-1978
Artist's work on exhibition at the National Collection of Fine Arts,
Washington, D.C.
1977
* The Material Dominant, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
1978
* Young American Artists, Exxon National Exhibition, Solomon R. GuggenheimMuseum,
New York
* The Presence of Nature, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1979
Art and Architecture, Space and Structure, Protetch McIntosh Gallery,
Washington, D.C.
* 1979
Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Custom and Culture, organized by Creative Time at the U.S. Customs House,
Bowling Green, New York
Wave Hill: The Artist's View, Independence Avenue, Bronx, NY
1980
Black Circle, Montgomery Ward Gallery, University of Illinois, Chicago
* Chicago, Chicago, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH
* Afro-American Abstraction, P.S.1, Long Island City, NY
1981
* Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
City Sculpture, The Chicago Public Library Cultural Center
* Instruction Drawings, Cranbrook Academy, Bloomfield Hills, MI
* Artists' Parks and Gardens, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
1981-1982
* The New Spiritualism: Transcendent Images in Painting and Sculpture,:
traveled to Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York; Jorgensen Gallery, University
of Connecticut; Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont
1982
Works in Wood, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
* Invitational Exhibition, Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence,
RI
* Form and Function: Proposals for Public Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Art,Philadelphia
N.A.M.E. Gallery in Pittsburgh, Hewlett Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh
* The 74th American Exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago
* American Abstraction Now, The Virginia Museum of Art
1983
Five Artists / NOAA Collaboration, Seattle Art Museum Pavilion
invitational Exhibition, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York
Beyond the Monument, Documentation of Public Art Projects and Proposals,
Hayden Corridor Gallery, MIT, Cambridge, MA
1982-1984
Afro-American Abstraction, Art Museum Association: traveled to P.S.
1, Long Island City, NY; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; The Oakland
Museum, Oakland, CA; Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, TN; The Art
Center, South Bend, IA; The Toledo Museum of Art, OH; Bellevue Art Museum,
WA; Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX
1984
* An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, The Museum
of Modern Art, New York
American Sculpture, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
Collaborating: The Power of the Artist and Architect Co-Designing Parks,
Plazas, Public Places from New York to Seattle, McIntosh-DrysdaleGallery,
Houston, TX
Proposals and Projects: World Fairs, Waterfronts, Parks and Plazas,
Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
American Sculpture, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
* Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and Modern,
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Transformation of the Minimal Style, The Sculpture Center, NY
1985
* Chicago Sculpture International / MILE 4,State Street Mall, Chicago,
IL
Sculpture Overview 1985, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
Basically Wood, Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston, MA
* Choosing: An Exhibit of Changing Perspectives in Modern Art and Art
Criticism by Black Americans, 1925-1985: traveled to Museum of Science
and Industry, Chicago; Chicago State University, Chicago; Portsmouth
Museum, Portsmouth, VA; Howard University, Washington, D.C.
The Artist as Social Designer, Aspects of Public Urban Art Today, LosAngeles
County Museum of Art, CA
Black Creativity, Generations in Transition: 80 Years of Black American
Expression,Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL
* Anniottanta, Invitational, Galleria d`Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
* Transformations in Sculpture: Four Decades in American and European
Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
* Artists and Architects, Challenges in Collaboration
Inaugural Exhibition, Tyler Gallery, Temple University, Philadelphia,
PA
1986
* After Nature, Germans Van Eck Gallery, New York (curated by Steven
H. Madoff)
Sculpture on Stetson: 1986, Chicago, IL
Three Artists / Three Visions, Charlotte Crosby Kempner Gallery, Kansas
City Art Institute, MO
Installations and Sculpture, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
Natural Forms and Forces: Abstract Images in American Sculpture, Hayden
Gallery, List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Bank of Boston
Individuals: A Selected History of Contemporary Art, 1945-1986,
Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
1987
* Structure to Resemblance: Work by Eight American Sculptors,
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
* Fifty Years of Collecting: An Anniversary Selection of Sculpture of
the Modern Era, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY
Emerging Artists 1978-1986: Selection from the Exxon Series, Solomon
R.Guggenheim Museum, New York
1988
From the Southern Cross: A View of World Art c. 1940-1988, 1988 Australian
Biennale, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Private Works for Public Spaces: Drawings, Maquettes and Documentation
for Unrealized Public Artworks, R.C. Erpf Gallery, NY
Spectrum: Mary Beth Edelson, Martin Puryear, Italo Scanga, Robert Stackhouse,
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The World of Art Today, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Innovations in Sculpture, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield,
CT
* SKULPTUR Material + Abstraktion: 2 x 5 Positionen, Aargauer Kunsthaus
Aarau, Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Art,Lausanne,Switzerland
* Enclosing the Void, Whitney Museum of American Art at Equitable Center,
New York, November 11, 1988 - January 25, 1989
New Sculpture/Six Artists, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
* Vital Signs: Organic Abstraction from the Permanent Collection, Whitney
Museum of American Art, New York
The Brooklyn Museum, NY (Installation of 2 large pieces in lobby)
* Sculpture Inside Out, Walker Art Center, MN (traveling exhibition,
cover illustration)
1989
Sculpture, Material and Abstraction, January 5 - February 10, Swiss
Institute & City Gallery, New York
* Art in Place: 15 Years of Acquisitions, Whitney Museum of American
Art, NY
* Traditions in Transformation - Contemporary Afro-American Artists,
February 27 - May 27, Bronx Museum, New York
* Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
* Introspectives: Contemporary Art by American and Brazilians of African
Descent, The California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles
New Sculpture: Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Martin Puryear, Susana Solano,
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
1990
* Objects of Potential: Five American Sculptors from the Anderson Collection,
Wiegand Gallery, College of Notre Dame, Belmont, CA
* The Decade Show, The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY
Selected Artists from the First 20 Years, Max Protetch Gallery, NY
* Black USA, Museum Overholland, Amsterdam
1991
Small Scale Sculpture, Sewell Art Gallery, Rice University, Houston,
TX
* Reprise: The Vera List Collection, David Winton Bell Gallery, List
Art Center, Brown University, Providence, RI
1991-1992
* Devil on the Stairs: Looking Back at the Eighties, Institute of Contemporary
Art, Philadelphia, PA; Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
1992
* Allegories of Modernism: Contemporary Drawing, The Museum of Modern
Art, New York
Process to Presence: Issues in Sculpture 1960 to 1990, in conjunction
with the 14th
International Sculpture Conference, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, WA
1993
* Collective Pursuits: Mount. Holyoke Investigates Modernism, Mount
Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA (Collection of Renee and
David McKee)
* Yale Collects Yale, New Haven, CT
American Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture, Martin Gropius
Bau, Berlin: traveled to the Royal Academy of Art, London
* Drawing the Line Against Aids, 45th Venice Biennale at the Peggy Guggenheim
Collection
1993-1994
Visual Arts Encounter: African Americans and Europe, Salle Clemenceau,
Palais du Luxembourg, Paris
1994
Western Artists / African Art, The Museum for African Art, NY
* Landscape as Metaphor: Visions of America in the Late Twentieth Century,
The Denver Art Museum, CO; Columbus Museum, OH
Putting Things Together: Recent Sculpture from the Anderson Collection,
The Art Museum of Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz, CA
Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, WA
1995-1996
The Material Imagination, Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York
1995
Twentieth Century American Scultpure at The White House, First Ladies'
Garden, The White House, Washington, D.C.
1996
* Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY, curated by Mark Rosenthal
1997
* A Century of Sculpture: The Nasher Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, New York, curated by Carmen Gimenez
* American Stories: Amidst Displacement and Transformation, Setagaya
Art Museum, Japan: traveled to Chiba City Museum of Art, Fukui Fine
Arts Museum, Kurashiki City Art Museum, Akita Prefectural Integrated
Life Cultural Hall
1998
* The Edward R. Broida Collection, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL
1999
The American Century Art & Culture 1900-2000, Part II, 1950-2000,
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2000
NEW works, McKee Gallery, New York
2000-2001
* Celebrating Modern Art: The Anderson Collection, San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art, CA
2001
Draughtsman's Colors, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY