Discuss Martin Puryear's relationship to the materials he uses in his works. How did his early life shape his attitude towards materials? Choose a work from Puryear, identify the materials used, and analyze how those specific materials contribute to the work's meaning.
What will be an ideal response?
Puryear began his lifelong love affair with materials as a young man, making wood furniture and canoes. His abstract sculpture celebrates materials, and the viewer always appreciates the labor and effort that went into its making. For example, Self, appears to be a solid mass but is instead made from thin sheets of wood, layered one atop the next, that transform a simple shape into a complex construction. The work seems to challenge the notion of superficial judgment, proposing that one look deeper into someone or something, to truly understand its makeup.
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