Getty Museum
That Profile
Creator
Martin PuryearAmerican Artist · 1941–present
All works by this person →A desire to "make things rather than representations of them" led Martin Puryear from his early training in painting and drawing to sculpture. A video on the making of his sculpture *That Profile* for the Getty Center vividly details his fascination with the process of making sculpture. After graduating in 1963, he joined the Peace Corps, which sent him to Sierra Leone. There, West African craftsm
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1999
- Medium
- Stainless steel, and bronze
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Sculpture
- Institution
- Getty Museum
A marvel of artistry and engineering, Martin Puryear's sculpture rises on six slender legs to a height of forty-five feet above the broad expanse of travertine pavement on the plaza at the Getty Center. Stout strands of silver-patinated bronze bind the joints of the airy network of welded, sandblasted stainless steel tubes, two and three inches in diameter. Elegant in its apparent simplicity, the sculpture's complex structure reveals its true character only slowly. The sculpture's meaning likewise resists a fixed identity, suggesting both a delicate fishnet cast against the sky and a human head in profile. From some viewpoints, it appears to be fully round, but its south face is flat, while the north face curves gently through the air. *That Profile* was commissioned by the Getty.
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