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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
On the Tundra
Martin Puryear (American, born in 1941)
1986
Medium/Technique
Cast iron
Dimensions
Overall: 49.5 × 24.1 × 29.2 cm (19 1/2 × 9 1/2 × 11 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Curator's Grant Program of the Peter Norton Family Foundation
Accession Number1991.620
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsContemporary Art, Americas
ClassificationsSculpture
This minimalist sculptural form suggests a falcon perched on a rock, birds which have fascinated Puryear since his youth. Created in an edition of five, each falcon sculpture bears a slightly different color patina, relating the work to the range in color of falcons themselves. Puryear draws a symbolic parallel in "On the Tundra" between the long-distance migratory patterns of falcons and African American identity and nomadic societies.
ProvenanceThe artist; with Donald Young Gallery, Chicago; to MFA, Boston, September 25, 1991