Alien Huddle

1993–95
(American, b. 1941)
Overall: 134.6 x 162.5 x 134.6 cm (53 x 64 x 53 in.)
© Martin Puryear
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Download, Print and Share

Did You Know?

Puryear seamlessly attached red cedar planks to the pine core without metal fixtures, a skill attributed to his training in furniture making, joinery, and woodworking.

Description

With its bulbous joined spheres made of pine and cedar, Alien Huddle reveals the close relationship between organic form and material that is emblematic of Martin Puryear's sculpture. A great breadth of aesthetic traditions informs his work, including modernist abstraction, Indigenous African crafts, boat building, and recent technology. Puryear brings these together to create a distinctive body of abstract work animated by cultural, social, and historical references.
Alien Huddle

Alien Huddle

1993–95

Martin Puryear

(American, b. 1941)
America, 20th century

Visually Similar Artworks

CMA Store

 (opens in new tab)
Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists
Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists
Antwaun SargentWhat's new, now and next from contemporary Black artistsThis book surveys the work of a new generation of Black artists, and also features the voices of a diverse group of curators who are on the cutting edge of contemporary art. As mission-driven collectors, Bernard I. Lumpkin and Carmine D. Boccuzzi have championed emerging artists of African descent through museum loans and institutional support. But there has never been an opportunity to consider their acclaimed collection as a whole until now.Edited by writer Antwaun Sargent (author of The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion), Young, Gifted and Black draws from this collection to shed new light on works by contemporary artists of African descent. At a moment when debates about the politics of visibility within the art world have taken on renewed urgency, and establishment voices such as the New York Times are declaring that "it has become undeniable that African American artists are making much of the best American art today," Young, Gifted and Black takes stock of how these new voices are impacting the way we think about identity, politics and art history itself.Young, Gifted and Black contextualizes artworks with contributions from artists, curators and other experts. It features a wide-ranging interview with Bernard Lumpkin and Thelma Golden, director, and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem; and an in-depth essay by Antwaun Sargent situating Lumpkin in a long lineage of Black art patrons. A landmark publication, this book illustrates what it means (in the words of Nina Simone) to be young, gifted, and Black in contemporary art.192 pagesFirst published September 29, 2020

Contact us

The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.