4 novembre - 14 gennaio 2008
John Elderfield, chief curator del Moma, ha selezionato una quarantina di opere dagli ultimi trent’anni di produzione di Martin Puryear, scultore nato a Washington nel 1941 e tra i principali esponenti della Minimal Art. O meglio, rientrano nella poetica Minimal le dimensioni delle sue sculture e, per un certo verso, i materiali ma Puryear non rinuncia all’aspetto artigianale del “fare”, passaggio fondamentale anche del proprio processo creativo che spesso si concretizza in fieri. La manualità è innata nell’artista che parallelamente ad una laurea in biologia porta avanti anche la sua passione per la falegnameria – implementata da un viaggio nella Sierra Leone - sino a quando, negli anni sessanta, le abbina entrambe nella combinazione di legno con acciaio, alluminio, ferro, vetro in sculture che sembrano incarnare il diktat, “less is more”. Sono forme semplici, eleganti, di sofisticata classicità. Gli ampi spazi del Moma permettono di esporre opere di difficile collocazione come Desire (1981) che è possibile ammirare anche in Italia presso la collezione Panza a Biumo Superiore (Varese). Sono rivelatrici le parole recentemente rilasciate dall’artista stesso: «I value the referential quality of art, the fact that a work can allude to things or states of being without in any way representing them. The ideas that give rise to a work can be quite diffuse, so I would describe my usual working process as a kind of distillation – trying to make coherence out of things that can seem contradictory. But coherence is not the same as resolution. The most interesting art for me retains a flickering quality, where opposed ideas can be held in tense coexistence».
John Elderfield, chief curator of Moma, has selected a forties works by the last thirty years of Martin Puryear’s production, sculptor born in Washington in 1941 and one of the principal exponent of the Minimal Art. Or better, he’s a Minimal for the dimensions and, in a certain way, for the materials but Puryear doesn’t give up to the hand-cratfed value, fundamental aspect also of his creative process that usual modifies in fieri. The manual ability is innate in the artist who at the same time studied biology and persists his passion for carpentry – enforced also during a travel in the Sierra Leone – then he used both in his combination of wood, steel, aluminium, glass, iron... sculptures that seem to embody the diktat, “less is more”. They are simple forms, elegant, capable of a sophisticated classicism. The large spaces of the Moma allow to expose also works as Desire (1981) that in Italy is possible to admire in Panza’s Collection in Biumo Superiore (Varese). The words that the artist has recently declare are really illuminating: «I value the referential quality of art, the fact that a work can allude to things or states of being without in any way representing them. The ideas that give rise to a work can be quite diffuse, so I would describe my usual working process as a kind of distillation – trying to make coherence out of things that can seem contradictory. But coherence is not the same as resolution. The most interesting art for me retains a flickering quality, where opposed ideas can be held in tense coexistence».