Martin Puryear: Nexus @ Museum of Fine Arts Boston + Cleveland Museum of Art + High Museum of Art

Martin Puryear: Nexus

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

September 27, 2025 – February 8, 2026

Cleveland Museum of Art

April 12 – August 9, 2026

High Museum of Art

September 25, 2026 – January 17, 2027

For more than half a century, the preeminent sculptor Martin Puryear (born 1941) has captivated the public with works of astonishing beauty and elaborate craftsmanship, whose sources of inspiration range from global cultures and social history to the natural world. Co-organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), and the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), Martin Puryear: Nexus is the first substantial survey of the artist’s work in nearly two decades. Assembling some 50 works from across Puryear’s career, the exhibition focuses on his use of a rich variety of materials and media—from sculptures in wood, leather, glass, marble, and metal to rarely shown drawings and prints.

After debuting at the MFA, where it is on view in the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art, the exhibition travels to the Cleveland Museum of Art from April 12 through August 9, 2026, followed by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta from September 25, 2026 through January 17, 2027. Martin Puryear: Nexus is accompanied by a catalogue produced by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Martin Puryear: Nexus reflects the artist’s singular practice, one that combines the distinctive techniques of production with the formal histories he has encountered through a lifetime of movement, research, and study. The exhibition begins with works on paper from the early 1960s and follows Puryear’s subsequent innovations in form, material, and process. Rooted in new scholarship, Martin Puryear: Nexus illuminates the ways in which the artist’s unique vocabulary has been shaped by his enduring interests in global traditions of material culture, African American history, and the natural world.

“With this exhibition we are pleased to feature an exceptional artist of our time and powerful works that speak to Martin Puryear's creativity and exceptional craftsmanship, and the lifelong learning that has fueled his practice,” said Pierre Terjanian, the MFA’s Ann and Graham Gund Director. “The sculptures included in this survey extend a compelling invitation to engage with themes of culture, identity, and history. We are grateful to our colleagues at the Cleveland Museum of Art for their partnership in making this project possible.”

“Martin Puryear’s art is staggeringly beautiful and also moving in the way that it invites us to see with fresh eyes the world we inhabit,” said William M. Griswold, Sarah S. and Alexander M. Cutler Director, the Cleveland Museum of Art. “Given the remarkable range of aesthetic traditions, cultural histories, and techniques of making that Puryear integrates in his work, we are especially pleased to present his career retrospective at museums with comprehensive collections from around the world, and spanning thousands of years of history.”

Martin Puryear: Nexus - Exhibition Highlights

Martin Puryear, Self (1978, The Joslyn Art Museum)

One of Puryear’s most iconic sculptures, Self shows the importance of dynamic formal oppositions in the artist’s work. At once a dark monolithic mass, Self is light and hollow, enclosing a hidden interior volume. It was assembled piece by piece through cold molding, a technique that Puryear learned through boat-building and which he has integrated into some of his most celebrated sculptures.

Martin Puryear, Night and Day (1984, Nasher Sculpture Center)

A rarely exhibited work, Night and Day reflects Puryear’s enduring interest in natural manifestations of black and white, which divide the two halves of the work’s semicircular arch. One end of the arch sits on the floor, while the other hovers just above it.

Martin Puryear, On the Tundra (1986, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Puryear’s interest in the natural world and ornithology are reflected in his creation of this cast iron sculpture, an abstracted form suggesting a falcon perched on a rock. It was partially inspired by a work from the MFA’s collection: a 1619 portrait of a gyrfalcon by the Mughal court painter Mansur (active around 1590­–1630). Mansur’s painting—a reproduction of which hangs in Puryear’s studio—was immediately compelling for him not only within the history of ornithological portraiture but also as a representation of geopolitical trade routes, as the gyrfalcon is not native to India and likely arrived via diplomatic trade channels from Europe. The exhibition also includes On the Tundra (Winter) (2022, collection of the artist), a recent iteration of the original sculpture in white marble.

Martin Puryear, Confessional (1996–2000, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Composed partly of wire mesh covered with tar, this work evokes a hollow inner space that is visible and obscured at the same time. Its title suggests one possible reading, delineating the wooden platform as a place upon which a confessor—implicitly, the viewer—may kneel and “confess.” Confessional is included only in Boston’s presentation.

Martin Puryear, Big Phrygian (2010–14, Glenstone Museum)

This colossal sculpture is the most dramatic representation of Puryear’s sustained engagement with the lineage of the Phrygian cap. This headdress signified formerly enslaved people in ancient Rome and later became a symbol of resistance to persecution during the French and American Revolutions. In the exhibition it is shown alongside the etching Phrygian (Cap in the Air) (2012, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

Martin Puryear, Hibernian Testosterone (2018, courtesy of the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery)

This large, wall-mounted sculpture reproduces in full scale the 12-foot antlers of the Irish elk, an extinct species of deer common during the Ice Age. Scientists of the 1700s had a theory that its antlers—which likely evolved to help the species survive combat and demonstrate sexual prowess and whose growth was propelled by testosterone—contributed to its extinction as they eventually became too heavy for the animal to hold up. Martin Puryear distills this parable-like history from the animal kingdom into a straightforward visual statement, suspending the antlers from an inverted cross.

Martin Puryear, Aso Oke (2019, Jack Shear Collection)

Encountered by visitors before they enter the exhibition, this monumental sculpture, cast in bronze, borrows its form from the fila gobi, a ceremonial cap worn by the Yoruba people of Nigeria. The intricate open latticework is a recurring technique used by Martin Puryear throughout his career.

Martin Puryear, A Column for Sally Hemings (2021, collection of the artist)

One of Puryear’s few indoor site-specific sculptures, this was created for the US Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Responding to the pavilion’s architecture, which was modeled on Monticello—the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson—the work’s fluted base echoes the Doric columns between which visitors passed to enter the exhibition space in Venice. The sculpture’s title refers to Sally Hemings (1773­–1835), the enslaved Black woman, with whom Jefferson had at least six children.

Martin Puryear: Nexus also features a film that documents Puryear’s most recent outdoor work Lookout (2023), a permanent site-specific commission for the Storm King Art Center. In Cleveland and Atlanta, additional film footage as well as prints, drawings, and documentation of other public commissions will also be on view, demonstrating how Puryear extends his studio practice into the public realm and maintains his commitment to craft and concept on a monumental scale.

Artist Martin Puryear

Over the past five decades, Martin Puryear has created a body of work based on abstract organic forms rich with psychological, cultural, and historical references. His labor-intensive sculptures are made by hand at his studio in upstate New York. They combine practices adapted from many different traditions, including wood carving, joinery, and boat building, as well as more recent technology. As a student, Puryear studied ornithology, falconry, and archery, and in the 1960s he volunteered with the Peace Corps in west Africa, where he was exposed to the region’s Indigenous crafts. Since then he has continued to travel extensively, observing a range of cultures and their unique approaches to object making. “I think there are a number of levels at which my work can be dealt with and appreciated,” he has said. “It gives me pleasure to feel there’s a level that doesn’t require knowledge of or immersion in the aesthetic of a given time or place.”

Martin Puryear was born in Washington, D.C., in 1941. His first one-person exhibition took place in 1968, and since then he has exhibited throughout the world, including public commissions in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. His work was featured in Documenta 9, and in 1989 he represented the U.S. at the Bienal de São Paulo, where he was awarded the festival’s Grand Prize. In 2007, the Museum of Modern Art in New York organized a survey of his work, which traveled to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. In 2015, the Art Institute of Chicago organized an exhibition of 50 years of his works on paper, which traveled to the Morgan Library and Museum in New York and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Martin Puryear received a MacArthur Foundation award in 1989 and a National Medal of Arts from President Obama in 2011. In 2019 he represented the U.S. at the 58th Venice Biennale. His recent commissions include outdoor works at Madison Square Park, the Storm King Art Center, and the Deichman Library in Oslo.

Martin Puryear: Nexus - Exhibition Catalogue

Martin Puryear: Nexus is accompanied by an expansive and richly illustrated catalogue. Designed and published by the Cleveland Museum of Art, with distribution by Yale University Press, the publication is anchored by five essays authored by a new generation of scholars: Rizvana Bradley, Joan Kee, Emily Liebert, Michelle Millar Fisher, and Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi.

Martin Puryear: Nexus

Exhibition Catalogue Cover

Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art

Image courtesy Yale University Press

Artwork © Martin Puryear

240 Pages, 10.50 × 13.00 in, 212 color + b-w illus.

Published October 2025

Additional perspectives enter the book through series of responses to individual works, contributed by thinkers and makers from a range of disciplines, many of whom are long-time interlocutors of the artist. They include Nairy Baghramian, Alex Da Corte, Thelma Golden, Maya Lin, Kerry James Marshall, Julia Phillips, Charles Ray, and Billie Tsien. Alongside these contemporary perspectives, the catalogue features archival materials that have never before been published.

Martin Puryear: Nexus - Exhibition Curators

The exhibition is co-curated by Emily Liebert, Lauren Rich Fine Curator of Contemporary Art, Chair of Art of the Americas, Modern and Contemporary Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, and Reto Thüring, Head of Culture at the Foundation for Art, Culture, and History in Winterthur, Switzerland and former Beal Family Chair, Department of Contemporary LArt at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with Gabriella Shypula, Leigh and Mary Carter Director’s Research Fellow, The Cleveland Museum of Art. The MFA’s presentation is organized by Ian Alteveer, Beal Family Chair, Department of Contemporary Art with Daisy Alejandre, Curatorial Assistant, Contemporary Art. The High’s presentation is organized by Michael Rooks, Wieland Family Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art.

MFA - MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BOSTON

465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

www.mfa.org

Rose Iron Works and Art Deco @ CMA - Cleveland Museum of Art - A Journey from Art Nouveau to Art Deco

Rose Iron Works and Art Deco 

Cleveland Museum of Art

July 6 - October 19, 2025

Muse with Violin Screen, 1930 

Rose Iron Works (America, Ohio, Cleveland, est. 1904) 

Designed by Paul Fehér (American, b. Hungary, 1898–1990)

Steel, brass, silver and gold plating, cotton velveteen, 

156.2 x 156.2 cm. 

The Cleveland Museum of Art, 

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 2020.216. 

© Rose Iron Works Collections  

Martin Rose (American, 1870–1955)

Rose, c. 1904

Wrought iron; 35.6 x 14 x 40.6 cm.  

© Rose Iron Works Collections 

Rose Iron Works, the family-owned, Cleveland source for premiere quality decorative metalwork, is the subject of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s (CMA) newest exhibition, Rose Iron Works and Art Deco. An important part of Cleveland’s artistic heritage, Rose Iron Works has been operating continuously since its founding in 1904, creating a legacy of industry, craftwork, and artistic production. Rose Iron Works and Art Deco traces the company’s journey from Art Nouveau to Art Deco during its first 30 years.

In the early 1900s, Cleveland was one of the wealthiest cities in the United States and a center for metalworking, which made it an appealing place for Hungarian ornamental blacksmith Martin Rose, founder of Rose Iron Works, to start a business. It soon became one of the leading manufacturers of decorative metalwork in the United States, with decorative metalwork adorning some of the city’s most notable buildings.  

Trained in Budapest and Vienna in a tradition that drew inspiration from recreating historical styles, Rose was interested in artistic and technological innovations. Around 1900, he adopted the Art Nouveau aesthetic, which used sinuous lines and organic forms inspired by nature, and in the late 1920s, a “modern” style. 

In 1925, a groundbreaking international exhibition in Paris presented modern decorative arts—a style that later became known as Art Deco. Rose’s compatriot and a designer active in Paris, Paul Fehér, joined Rose Iron Works in Cleveland a few years later. Their artistic collaboration resulted in some of the best Art Deco ironwork in the country, including the celebrated Muse with Violin Screen (1930), now in the CMA’s collection.  

“Rose Iron Works is important locally, nationally and internationally,” said Ada de Wit, Ellen S. and Bruce V. Mavec Curator of Decorative Arts at the CMA. “This exhibition places Rose Iron Works in context with an elite network of blacksmiths and designers in Europe between the cities of Budapest, Hungary; Vienna, Austria; and Paris, France. It is apparent that Martin Rose had his finger on the pulse of European trends in the decorative arts and was able to translate them for a Cleveland audience.” 

In the Art Deco period, decorative metalwork connoted luxury through high-quality craftsmanship; modern, sophisticated design; and the use of expensive materials such as brass, chrome, and in some cases, silver and gold plating, as well as novel alloys like monel. Ornaments played an important role in architecture and were used on everything from public buildings and places of worship to banks and private homes, many of which can still be seen, for example, in Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights mansions.  

The exhibition showcases some of Rose Iron Works’ most notable Art Deco creations, including the now iconic Muse with Violin screen (1930), and loans from Rose Iron Works, such as an ambitious 90-foot frieze of the history of metalworking and a door grille salvaged from Halle Brothers Co. (1927), a high-end department store chain in Cleveland. Another significant loan is an overdoor (c. 1885) from the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest, made by Gyula Jungfer (Hungarian, 1841–1908), Rose’s teacher in Budapest and the most successful artist-blacksmith in Hungary. It represents the European tradition and training that shaped Rose’s career.  

CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART

11150 East Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44106

www.clevelandart.org

The History of Japanese Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston + Cleveland Museum of Art

The History of Japanese Photography 

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

March 2 - April 27, 2003

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents two centuries of Japanese photography in an unprecedented exhibition. The History of Japanese Photography is the first comprehensive exhibition in the West to survey the history of photography made by Japanese photographers. Jointly organized by the Japan Foundation and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the exhibition features more than 200 photographs by 110 photographers gathered from public and private collections around the world. After Houston, the exhibition will travel to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue - the first extensive history of Japanese photography published in a Western language - examine the evolution of Japanese photography, how its aesthetic shifts relate to the country¡¦s historical and cultural developments, and its impact on photographers around the world. Among the exhibition´s highlights are 19th-century portraits of samurai and the Meiji Emperor, photographic scrolls with panoramas of major cities, and battlefields from the Russo-Japanese war. Selections from the 20th century include exquisite landscapes and still-life arrangements as well as several urban scenes. The post-World War II sections reflect an era of increasing global interaction during which contemporary Japanese artists have been exploring the boundaries of photographic expression.

Photography in Japan has a rich and varied history, but it hasbeen largely excluded from Western histories about the medium," said Peter C. Marzio, director of the MFAH. This show will demonstrate the importance of Japanese photography in that country and internationally. The museum´s photography department enjoys a strong reputation, in part, because of groundbreaking work like this. Houston audiences are fortunate to be the first to see this brilliant exhibition."

Works in the exhibition are presented to coincide with the main eras of modern Japanese history (Edo to Heisei), and each era is broken into two-decade sections, arranged chronologically. Photographs shown range in size from 4 by 5 inches to 4 by 5 feet. Books and periodicals are part of the display, providing an historic, social, and aesthetic context for the exhibition.

"This exhibition is intriguing on so many levels and is intended to provoke a number of discussions and shifts in our understanding of the broad history of photography," said Anne Wilkes Tucker, the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography at the MFAH, who is part of an international team of curators who organized the exhibition and who is one of the authors of the catalogue. "In telling the greater story of the evolution of photography, the exhibition will look at the interaction of Japanese and Western photographers, links between photography and other Japanese art forms, and the aesthetic innovations created by Japanese photographers."

The exhibition begins with works by the first Japanese photographers in 1854, who began to pursue the art form after seeing photographs for the first time with the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry. The Japanese had begun to study the daguerreotype a few years prior to Perry´s arrival, and quickly mastered photographic processes. As elsewhere in the world, portraiture was the first aspect of photography to gain popularity and studios were quickly established in the major cities. The early photographs captured the final moments of a warrior class and the rising influence of Western culture and technology, as well as the rise of a middle class.

In the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, Japan was involved in three wars that influenced the course of photography. By the early 1900s, amateur photography clubs were common in most major cities and their members were primarily interested in pictorialism, a style heavily influenced by painting. During World War II, the Japanese magazines Front, intended for export, and Nippon, intended for domestic audiences, were published to propagandize the Japanese position in World War II. Many of the country¡¦s most important documentary photographers began their careers at those magazines. During the war, and immediately after, several photographers began to document aspects of Japanese culture that they esteemed.

In 1959, a radical collective of magazine photographers started the Vivo Group. It only lasted two years, but its influence on magazine photographers was far-reaching. The group´s harsh, graphic styles can be compared with the grainy, high-contrast prints of their American contemporaries Robert Frank and William Klein. Another photographic group emerged in 1968, founded by photographers who published the magazine Provoke: Provocative Materials for the Mind. While Vivo members upheld an abiding commitment to humanism, members of Provoke sought to free themselves from external ideologies to express more intimate issues, which was a radical departure from the Japanese´s customary reticence to publicize their personal lives.

International travel from Japan was limited from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, first by the government then by American occupation. During that 20-year period, information about international photographic and visual-arts practices was limited. With the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and the Osaka World´s Fair in 1970, the climate for travel and a freer exchange of information improved. In the last two decades, Japanese photographers have been influenced by conceptualism, individualism, national and cultural identity, and environmental issues. Among the offerings in this final section are Kon Michiko´s gorgeous studio still-lifes based on photographing fish fresh from the sushi market, Yanagi Miwa´s kaleidoscopic spectacle with uniformed "Elevator girl" trapped in underground shopping arcades, and Shibata Toshio´s landscapes documenting the vast cement embankments that made it possible to build roads and bridges in the mountains. Hatekeyama Naoya explores the rivers and underground passages of Tokyo as Sugimoto Hirosi has photographed the world´s seas, theaters from Hollywood´s Golden Era, and Japan's Buddha.

Organizers

The History of Japanese Photography is jointly organized by the Japan Foundation and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The curators are Anne Tucker, the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography at the MFAH; Dana Friis-Hansen, chief curator of the Austin Museum of Art; Joe Takeba of the Nagoya City Art Museum; and Ryuichi Kaneko of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

Catalogue

An illustrated catalogue, published by Yale University Press, accompanies the exhibition. It includes six essays, a comprehensive chronology, annotated lists of major camera clubs and magazines, a bibliography, and artist biographies. The book will be available for $65 in hardcover and $50 in softcover at the MFAH Shops.

Symposium

Japanese Photography: A Distinctive Aesthetic, a symposium examining the themes underlying research for the exhibition, will be held from 1-6 p.m. on Saturday, March 1 in Brown Auditorium Theater on the lower level of the Caroline Wiess Law Building. Speakers and their topics are: Kaneko Ryuichi, guest curator, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, The Origins and Development of Japanese Art Photography; Takeba Joe, curator, Nagoya City Art Museum, The Age of Modernism: From Visualization to Socialization; Dana Friss-Hansen, The Dr. and Mrs. Ernest C. Butler Executive Director, Austin Museum of Art, Japanese Photography Since 1980: Internationalization, Individualism, and the Institutionalization of Photography; Hatakeyama Naoya, renowned Japanese photographer, On My Work; and Anne Wilkes Tucker, the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography at the MFAH, Japanese Photography in the Context of Western Imagery. The symposium, which is open to the public and free with general museum admission, concludes with a reception and viewing of the exhibition.

Tour Schedule

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 2 - April 27, 2003

The Cleveland Museum of Art, May 18 - July 27, 2003

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON

Caroline Wiess Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet Street, Houston, Texas

www.mfah.org