Since this was a life retrospective, works using a broad variety of media and time were on display. Ladder for Booker T. Washington was breathtaking in its 60-foot or so unsteady climb to a heavenward horizon point and very beautifully lit. AdAstra is the name of the piece pictured that looks kind of like a trebuget base with a 100-foot or so branch.
I was only able to photograph the pieces on display in the lobby areas, so that’s all I can share. Take a few minutes to experience the full MOMA exhibition. My favorite, Lever #1, has a rounded base made of think strips of red cedar, cypress, poplar and ash, with a very tall, beaver tail-looking neck. Nadine’s favorite was Some Lines for Jim Beckwourth, seven multi-colored strips of twisted rawhide with little tufts of fur(?) popping up. Beckwourth apparently influenced Puryear greatly. He was born a slave in 1798, son of a white man and a black slave, who had quite a colorful life—was head of the Crow nation at one time. A truly amazing piece, Alien Huddle, is 3 round wooden orbs intertwined in a family-like composition. The precision of each slat is so perfect, each orb comes together without a gap. Ryley liked Dowager, a piece of tar-covered mesh that looked remarkably like a white shark’s dorsal fin.
My only disappointment in the show was the number of pieces that remain untitled— dinosaur with the ball on the string is one of these—since his titles are so intriguing.
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