Martin Puryear - Black Cart
American, b.1941
Black Cart, 2008
Color aquatint with chine colle, 35 x 28 inches
Edition of 50
Paulson Press
09.012
Gift of the Global MBA Class of 2009


Martin Puryear was born in Washington D. C. in 1941. As a youth, Puryear spent much of his time learning how to fabricate furniture and instruments. The techniques he learned while building such things as cabinets and guitars would serve him well while constructing his sculptures. Puryear earned his B. A. from The Catholic University of America in 1963. He also attended Yale University for his graduate studies after returning from the Peace Corps in 1966. Puryear’s sculpture is constructed from simple materials such as tar, wood, wire, and other metals. The overall look and feel of his pieces are of both modern sculpture and traditional techniques and shapes.

Black Cart began as a softground drawing back in 2005. The piece was originally the idea for a sculpture, and is very reminiscent of a similar piece titled CFAO that was completed in 2006. “In Black Cart, a cloudlike umber spitbite field surrounds richly rendered central shape and creates a sense of momentum, which is stilled momentarily in the image’s upper right corner by the simple hardground drawing of the cart’s structure.” (Paulson Press Release 2009) The cart itself is left to the imagination. Is it a covered wagon billowing across the field, or perhaps a rickshaw, overflowing with its cargo? It is up to the viewer’s interpretation.