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This talent for seeing and representing the quintessential nature of form transverses Puryear's work regardless of his chosen medium. .25" Few artists working in America today have received the critical acclaim imparted to Martin Puryear. Puryear began his art career in 1959, under the direction of painter Nell Sonneman at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D. Between 1964 and 1966, working as a teacher in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, West Africa, Puryear independently studied West African arts and crafts. It supports educational and cultural programs at the new Presidio location, including tours of the living museum. Click here for information about the Grabhorn Institute and how you can help with tax-deductible contributions. The edition of Cane by Jean Toomer, with woodblock prints by Martin Puryear, published in 2000, has nearly sold out. ..

The recipient of many prizes and awards including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1989), Puryear lives with his wife and daughter in Accord, New York. . Paul Getty Trust announced today that the internationally known American artist Martin Puryear has been commissioned to create a sculpture for the Tram Arrival Plaza at the Getty Center. The still-untitled piece, a tall, openwork structure of stainless steel and bronze, will be installed in late October 1999. It will rise from a broad expanse of travertine pavement on six slender legs to a height of 45 feet, its billowing form suggesting both a delicate fishnet cast against the sky and a human head in profile.

. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is hosting an exhibition of 12 sculptures which capture Mr. Puryear began his studies in biology at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, but soon switched over to painting and illustration and graduated with a fine arts degree in 1963. His early visions were to become a wildlife illustrator, so the combination of biology and art were perhaps not so strange. Puryear spent two years in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, West Africa where he taught art, biology, French and English.

further information: http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Tours/Garden_Exhibit3/puryear.html

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