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In Loop, the artist begins a thick black horizontal line in the bottom left corner of the etching, then arcs up, over, and down the buff-colored ground to the bottom right corner. The line has a textural, organic quality; it almost seems to quiver and pulse. The line ends in a pale gray wedge-shape in the bottom right corner. The arch that Puryear creates leans slightly to the right, highlighting the hand-drawn quality of the shape. Isabelle Dervaux, curator of modern and contemporary drawings at the Morgan Library and Museum, notes an affinity in Puryear’s work for the shape of the phrygian cap, the sloping knitted hat worn by French revolutionaries. [2] Loop demonstrates that affinity.
[1] Puryear quoted in exhibition brochure Martin Puryear, Museum of Modern Art,
November 4, 2007–January 14, 2008 (2007), 1.
[2] https://www.themorgan.org/blog/new-acquisition-martin-puryears-prints.
Accessed February 15, 2024.
DepartmentAmerican Art
Loop
Artist
Martin Puryear
(born 1941)
Date2002
MediumDrypoint and soft ground etching with chine collé
DimensionsImage: 8 1/2 × 6 7/8 in. (21.6 × 17.5 cm)
Paper: 16 1/2 × 13 in. (41.9 × 33 cm)
Credit LineGift of Kenneth Frazelle, in memory of Rick Mashburn
Object number2024.1.1
DescriptionContemporary artist Martin Puryear creates large-scale abstract sculptures that call to mind familiar motifs and objects. Created most often of wood, Puryear’s monumental forms sometimes suggest wheels, baskets, walls, gates, towers, vessels, and shelters. At other times, the irregular shapes and bulging volumes demonstrate the artist’s interest in pure form. As Puryear says, “I value the referential quality of art, the fact that a work can allude to things or states of being without in any way representing them.” [1] Puryear is also a printmaker; Reynolda has in its collection a set of prints from his book project Cane (2000) as well as a bound edition of the book. The etching Loop demonstrates interest in a strong calligraphic line. It departs from the Cane prints, however, in the visual resonance it has with Puryear’s sculptures. Puryear is profoundly interested in the shape of an irregular swelling, arching bulge and returns to the form over and over in his work (Bower [1980], Confessional [2000], Tabernacle [2019]). In Loop, the artist begins a thick black horizontal line in the bottom left corner of the etching, then arcs up, over, and down the buff-colored ground to the bottom right corner. The line has a textural, organic quality; it almost seems to quiver and pulse. The line ends in a pale gray wedge-shape in the bottom right corner. The arch that Puryear creates leans slightly to the right, highlighting the hand-drawn quality of the shape. Isabelle Dervaux, curator of modern and contemporary drawings at the Morgan Library and Museum, notes an affinity in Puryear’s work for the shape of the phrygian cap, the sloping knitted hat worn by French revolutionaries. [2] Loop demonstrates that affinity.
[1] Puryear quoted in exhibition brochure Martin Puryear, Museum of Modern Art,
November 4, 2007–January 14, 2008 (2007), 1.
[2] https://www.themorgan.org/blog/new-acquisition-martin-puryears-prints.
Accessed February 15, 2024.
Status
Not on view