Martin Puryear: Lookout

Inspired by global masonry techniques and Hudson Valley history, Martin Puryear’s installation for Storm King Art Center opens its oculi onto the museum grounds

This catalog documents the construction and unveiling of American artist Martin Puryear’s (born 1941) monumental site-specific installation, Lookout, at Storm King Art Center in New Windsor, New York. The 20-foot-tall sculpture is built of layers of red clay bricks laid using thin-shell masonry techniques. Rather than straight lines and vertical walls, however, the work curves inward and upward, opening to allow entry from one side while producing a swelling form on the opposite end. In Lookout, Puryear evokes brickmaking as a once-primary industry in the Hudson Valley and references the vernacular structures that dot the local landscape.
Inside the structure, Puryear uses the work’s form and setting to encourage a heightened sense of presence. The brick surface is punctuated by a constellation of 90 circular openings created by tubes of fiberglass-reinforced concrete in varying sizes. These oculi act as apertures, creating pinhole vignettes of the surrounding trees and sky. The book is complemented by a broader retrospective of Puryear’s work, including a selection of process models and drawings from over 40 years of his public sculptures and installations.