Words Glenn Adamson Photography Carlton Davis

Published in No 17

This fall [2023], Storm King Art Center will be crowned by a monumental new sculpture in red brick by Martin Puryear, Lookout. Working from his Hudson Valley home and studio, Puryear has devised a form that — like all his work — is at once powerful and multivalent, open to numerous interpretations. A pocket of space rising from the ground, punctuated by apertures, it is a permeable envelope in which one can stand, see, and simply be. The work describes a progression from an arched vertical opening to a horizontal dome. In the transit between these two simple shapes — from one point of view, purely mathematical — a wondrous, sensuous complexity unfolds.

The complex project was developed through collaboration with engineer John Ochsendorf and masonry specialist Lara Davis. The first step was to construct an armature of stainless steel rebar welded together over a temporary plywood formwork. (The stainless steel armature provides structural reinforcement and also controls the shape.) Tubes were incorporated through the brickwork as the masonry progressed, each one aimed at a single interior viewpoint five feet off the ground — these would become the piece’s portholes, or oculi. Finally, two layers of brickwork, the space between them filled with concrete, were constructed around the armature, in nine segments. This was done using an ancient method called Nubian Vaulting, in which bricks are laid at an angle, each course resting on the previous one. No interior formwork was needed for the upper tiers of the sculpture. A Jewish immigrant from Prague, escaping Nazi hostility, Kohn had imagined the plot in Ecuador as the ideal place to lay down roots. It was also an abode dedicated to his wife, the late Dr. Vera Schiller — an actress, psychologist and pioneer of Zen Buddhism, whose personality can be felt in every layer. There is nothing ordinary about Casa Kohn or the family who once inhabited it. Original and ambitious, both thrived in their new surroundings.

Martin Puryear I think it was almost ten years ago that Storm King first approached me, and I began to visit with an eye toward finding a site. At some point David Collins, the director at the time, said, "I want to show you a spot." It was spectacular: a rise that came out of the woods. And that's when I came up with the idea. 

Lookout by Martin Puryear, documented on May 20, 2023.

We are creating a work that frames a spectacular view from the hilltop over Storm King’s fields and the mountains beyond, but because of all the circular openings — oculi, I guess you'd call them — you will also see a constellation of different views — glimpses of the surrounding woods and sky. It's a form that you can see from a distance, but you don’t just experience it from the outside. It’s a sculpture that you can enter. It marks a location, and it provides a view from that location, in many different directions.

It's also a celebration of masonry. I've been fascinated with brick for a long time. It goes along with my interest in incremental making of all kinds. Masonry is probably the most commonplace permanent building method on the planet, but it’s also capable of being used in very innovative, surprising ways. There’s a brick building that I’ve always enjoyed on Madison Avenue in New York, the Squadron A Armory at 94th Street. It has massive, rounded forms that seem carved, rather than made from bricks laid one-by-one, by hand. And then, of course, there's the history of brick in this area. Kingston, New York, was a major brickmaking center. 

Glenn Adamson You have said that you were interested in bricks partly because they're a universal technique. 

MP Masonry is universal. Building something big and substantial by stacking little units is something that nearly every culture has done from the beginning of time.

GA This is something I'm very interested in, Martin. And I think it's true of all of your work. It's big, it's monumental. In this case, it's going to be on one of the highest points in Storm King. And yet it seems utterly without ego. 

MP That’s a fascinating observation. This project depends on the skill and expertise of so many people beyond myself. We were fortunate to have been able to pull together a team of very skilled brick masons and people with highly specialized engineering expertise. It’s a true collaboration. Anyway, Sōetsu Yanagi said, "The thing shines, not the maker." And I think that is a beautiful idea.

GA Was there a moment when you committed to the three different sizes for the openings, oculi?

MP The first model had all the holes the same size, but then I decided it needed to have some variety. I decided on three different sizes, and to distribute the holes on a loose diagonal grid rather than vertically and horizontally. 

Lookout documented on June 13, 2023.

GA To make it more dynamic? 

MP And to break up the strict linearity of where the holes are punched through. You get a feeling that there's a grid, but it's not rigid. 

GA Like a system that you can't quite grasp, which is very characteristic of traditional architecture. You can tell there's a logic, but you can't necessarily pin it down. 

MP This whole thing has been one long succession of problems solved. Meeting the engineer John Ochsendorf was a game changer. He was the first one to believe that the bricks could be used structurally and not just as a veneer or skin. As we developed the idea further it actually became a hybrid structure, because it does incorporate reinforced concrete between the inner and outer walls of brick.

GA Your structure feels simple, though, after all the complexity.

MP That’s good fortune when it happens. I generally arrive at my forms by hand. I don't use a computer as a design tool at all. I may draw, but when it comes to the third dimension, typically I will actually carve it or build it somehow with the tools in my shop.

GA The first wood model that you showed me…

MP That's carved out of a block of pine. 

GA Do you have any theory as to why it's so generative for you to use your hands in that way? 

MP I don't have a theory, I just know where my creativity flows from. From my brain through my hands to the work. I think like a craftsperson or an artisan, in the sense that I have always worked with my hands, worked through my hands. A lot of artists today don't need to do that because of advances in technology.

GA And complexity too, I suppose? 

MP Yes. But when I came into my maturity as an artist, Minimalism was ascendant. I don't consider myself a Minimalist, but I do feel like there's always been a drive in my work to reduce things to something really essential. Not always simple, but essential. And not even always, because the pendulum swings, and sometimes I really need, to elaborate, but generally I tend to want to hone things down to their essentials.

GA Do you think there's also something about wanting to stay in touch with the human scale — by using your hands, and coming up with forms that relate to the body? 

MP Certainly that's one of the things that you get with masonry. Because a brick — no matter what culture uses it — is something you can pick up with one hand. That's what defines the size of a brick, the module. You can pick it up with one hand and put it into place in the wall.

GA The Storm King piece is articulated according to those modules, too, because it has very defined mortar lines.

MP Right, and the seams between the nine segments. I could give you a litany of all of the solutions that we came up with as we worked it all out. For example, we had realized from making the model that we were going to have to make a diagonal seam through the masonry at an angle for each segment, which would result in lots of little wedge-shaped pieces. If you cut through a grid at an angle, you get triangles. And at first we thought, well, we could just cut a bunch of wedge-shaped slivers, and lay them in place along the transition line. But instead, we decided to lay the bricks past the transition line, then use a laser to mark the line and finally make the diagonal cut using a masonry saw. So, we got a perfectly clean seam between one segment and the next. 

GA So that gives you another datum to lay onto?

MP Exactly. And that was the solution.

GA And the changing angles of the masonry courses create a shape that moves from a 90-degree vertical at the opening, to a dome whose base is exactly parallel to the ground. Can you talk a little bit about that movement? 

MP Right. That's the key thing for the work. It expresses, or illustrates, a transition from a tunnel — at the opening, at the mouth — to a dome, through a succession of different angles. That's what’s taking place within the form.

GA From the upright to the level. So, it's basically about two planes.

MP Well, it's what happens between those planes. 

GA Going from A to Z and seeing what happens along the route. 

MP Yes, it's been a puzzle to solve. 

GA Have you thought about what it might be like at different times of day and night? 

MP I've thought about it. But I mean, it's all guesswork at this point. The portholes could be thought of as a constellation of light, like stars. But they'll be large, and along with the view out, they’ll deliver light in separate units, maybe shafts or beams of light, at various times. I don't like to predict what's going to happen before it’s finished, because I haven't done it in a predictive way. It's been all very intuitive. 

GA There will be a feeling that the sculpture is embracing you, given that all the holes converge on one point; when you stand there, they are all in your sight line. Underneath the night sky, and all the stars sending their light to you, from all that time ago and across all that distance… I feel like it might allow you to feel tuned into something quite vast. 

MP If that's the reaction people have to it I'll feel fortunate. Now, it's going to have a certain reality from the outside — it will have this stitched-together character because of the way the masonry segments will lean into one another, with bricks encircling the form, and climbing at steeper and steeper angles. When it’s completed, I hope the transition from tunnel curving upward into dome is what hits the viewer, along with the realization that they’re seeing bricks used in a completely new way. And I’ll be especially pleased if a heightened awareness of place results, not only from seeing the sculpture in nature, from the outside, but also from experiencing the work and the view it provides from the inside, looking out.

GA It bridges back to a time before there were professional engineers and there was a more intuitive style of building.

MP In September, there will be an exhibition at Storm King presenting a number of my past projects for sculpture in public places. We’ve been collecting models and documentation going back almost 50 years. And a lot of the work has been about how things have been made, and the trades involved in the making of them. 

GA And what about the title for the new sculpture? 

MP It will have a title by the time it's finished, but I don't have it yet. 

GA Well, it will present itself to you, I'm sure.

MP Yeah. I expect it will. 

Order the catalogue, MARTIN PURYEAR: LOOKOUT, and visit stormking.org

Glenn Adamson is a curator, writer and historian who works at the intersection of craft, design and contemporary art. glennadamson.com @glenn_adamson

Carlton Davis is a regular contributor to UD and is represented by CLM-Agency.com @carlton