MARTIN PURYEAR (B. 1941)
The Collection of Margo Leavin
MARTIN PURYEAR (B. 1941)

Lurk

Details
MARTIN PURYEAR (B. 1941)
Lurk
painted pine
21 3⁄4 x 61 1⁄4 x 7 1⁄4 in. (55.3 x 155.6 x 18.4 cm.)
Executed in 1984.
Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner
Literature
J. R. Kirshner, "Martin Puryear, Margo Leavin Gallery," Artforum, Summer 1985.
S. Muchnic, "The Abstract Shapes of Familiar Mysteries," Los Angeles Times, January 1985.
N. Benezra, Martin Puryear, Chicago and New York,1991, pp. 90-91 (illustrated).
Exhibited
Los Angeles, Margo Leavin Gallery, Martin Puryear: Nature and Artifice, January-February 1985.
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Martin Puryear / MATRIX 86, August-September 1985, no. 11.
Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, Martin Puryear: Public and Personal, February-April 1987.
Pittsburgh, Carnegie-Mellon University Art Gallery, Martin Puryear: Sculpture - Drawings, April-May 1987.
Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Martin Puryear, October 1991-January 1993.

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Lot Essay

“For me, the work is about form. Associations (with recognizable subject matter) are inevitable human reactions from people who have grown up with a figurative or representational tradition, but I prefer when people say they get a feeling from the work instead of a specific interpretation... References (to other objects or beings) are left open on purpose. Titles (such as “Lurk,” the name of a hollow wooden arc whose hard-edged exterior form houses an amorphous, dark interior) are entrances or clues. When work is as evocative as this, you shouldn’t be left dangling (without a title), but I don’t like to lock the work up too closely because that’s part of the richness.”
– Martin Puryear

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