I have not been able to shake the impression Martin Puryear’s survey show at MoMA, NYC had on me. I will first back up and describe that I have been educated by the 90’s art canon where youth and concept held vogue and the sculpted object and artists like Martin Puryear had many naysayers. I will set out in this essay to discuss the subjects of quality vs. quantity, craft, Conceptualism, authorship and sustainability.

Martin Puryear’s work contains a confidence in form and finish while allowing its completed state to hold on to the organic. It becomes ‘timeless’ without diluting its core natural state of rough textures, shaped dimensional boards and muted colors from the landscape . There is no reason not to place it on the same museum floor as Brancusi’s ‘Bird in Space’ and the Futurist’s ‘Running Man’. Puryear looks to the object to sum up the whole of culture and ones placement in the built landscape.

We are in the 21st century, one might proclaim, and I feel this makes Puryear’s work stronger. As current trends have been removing ‘Craft’ from the title of art colleges and museums in the United States. Puryear is able to hold the chisel and be relevent in contemporary culture. He confronts the ‘Walmart’ attitude of this country with his quality over quantity. His chisel cuts through the current climate of art as Marcel DuChamp did with his early urinal as readymade, both utilitarian tools sculpt humanity into a manageable, viewable form that takes hold of history and the exhibition space.

My complaint immediately upon leaving the exhibition was it had not shown many examples of what he has been doing since the early survey shows of the 80’s. Later I came to dismiss this on a couple of levels, one being my education around the arts compared to that of most museum visitors (especially at MoMA), also upon reflection it presents some of the issues concerning sustainability and authorship. Andy Warhol was prolific because he whole heartedly embraced commercialism and the appropriation of most things. Puryear spends his time differently. He understands the importance of sourcing the correct and sustainable material and other hours are spent sharpening the tools and understanding the species of wood. The work makes me feel he has an obligation to making a mark with his own hands, as an African American artist who is old enough to understand where his race has been and how important it is that he is able to use his hands for his own pursuits.

Less is More can have profound implications right now on the planet. It brings to mind a quality dinner that one sits down for hours to enjoy with company and slow savory food opposed to say the car seat experience of having a processed meal of fast food that you regret immediately after and for the years to come. Puryear’s exhibition taps directly into these concerns. It begins with the sparse installation and the varying sculptures (not drawings, photos or studies) that have been amassed across decades. The eye slows starting with the partially exposed process of the construction and then it follows the sculptures angles and turns and finally rests on the dense, muted colors of the finish. Time stops and Puryear’s work holds strong as evidence of progress in a nation, culture and planet.