Artist
Martin  Puryear (American, b. 1941)

Title
Blue Blood

date
1979

medium
polychromed pine and red cedar

size
66 inches diameter

credit line
Gift of the Truland Foundation

Accession Number
1980.51

Terms and conditions for image use

Blue Blood
Martin  Puryear (American, b. 1941)

Blue Blood is one of a handful of loops the artist constructed in the years after a fire destroyed his apartment, studio, and much of his early work. Puryear’s loops are evidence of his fascination with line, mass, and space. He has described them as being primarily about line, essentially drawings in wood. From a distance, Blue Blood seems to be drawn directly onto the wall, possessing volume only as you move near it. Thus it reads as both line and object, a form without a center. It is not a perfect ring, but a graceful arc loosely based on the elemental shape of a circle. It is stained black, only a tiny rectangular carving on one side of the interior revealing that it is made of red cedar. The shape atop it, painted yellow, is constructed of pine.

The Corcoran acquired Blue Blood shortly after it organized the artist’s first solo museum show, in 1977. . . .

:: Stacey Schmidt, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which is available for purchase in the Corcoran Shop. :: Click here to purchase this catalog online

:: View more Contemporary Art

 

Press | Site Map| Search| Need assistance? | Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2008, Corcoran Gallery of Art