ArtBeat: Martin Puryear @ Kleinert/James Arts Center, 10/16/09

Acclaimed American artist Martin Puryear will give an artist talk at 7pm on Friday, October 16, at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s Kleinert/James Arts Center in Woodstock. Named “America’s best artist” by Time Magazine art critic Robert Hughes, Puryear will give a short slide show of his work and then have a conversation with the audience.

Puryear is currently the subject of a one-person exhibition of his prints in the Kleinert/James Arts Center. The exhibit, “Martin Puryear: A Survey of Prints,” remains on view through Sunday, October 18.

Puryear’s prints are filled with subtleties, sensitive lines and mottled tones, as only a great printmaker can achieve. Some of his prints, such as 1999’s “Untitled (LAMOCA),” show the printer’s hand with black working marks. His prints refer to his sculptures, allusive shapes which very often suggest enclosures, forms that contain a void or an emptiness.

Check out Sarah LaDuke’s discussion of Puryear’s exhibit with curator Phyllis Gilbert and Byrdcliffe director Carol Smith on WAMC-FM’s “Roundtable.”