Episode #174: Filmed in 2002, Martin Puryear discusses his interest in printmaking and how the directness of the process contrasts with the accretive approach he takes with sculpture. Shown working at the Paulson Bott Press in Berkeley, California, Puryear employs skills he originally learned while enrolled at the Swedish Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm. Examples of Puryear's sculptures, many of which explore the same ideas reflected in his prints, are shown at the McKee Gallery in New York.

Martin Puryear's sculptures—in wood, stone, tar, wire, and various metals—are a marriage of minimalist logic with traditional ways of making. Puryear's exploration in abstract forms retain vestigial elements of utility from everyday objects found in the world.  A form that reoccurs in Puryear's work is the hollow mass, a solid shape with qualities of uncertainty and emptiness.

Learn more about the artist at:
http://www.art21.org/artists/martin-puryear

CREDITS | Producer: Ian Forster. Consulting Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Bob Elfstrom, Mead Hunt & Ken Kobland. Sound: Doug Dunderdale & Jerry Stein. Editor: Morgan Riles. Artwork Courtesy: Martin Puryear, McKee Gallery & Paulson Bott Press. Theme Music: Peter Foley.