05 Sep 2024
Collection Highlight
Martin Puryear
ABOUT
In June 2024 Martin Puryear’s monumental, thatched sculpture Meditation in a Beech Wood was restored. Visitors were invited to follow the entire process with several events during the building process. On September 5 the project culminates with a seminar where the artist inaugurates the remade sculpture. Martin Puryear began working as an artist in the 1960s, at a time when many of his colleagues were working with the reduced, abstract style of minimalism. Drawing on this art form as well as traditional craftsmanship, he developed his own design language. In his sculptures, he uses natural materials such as metal, stone, grass and wood, which he gives abstract, dreamlike shapes.
Program september 5
10:30 Gathering at the Main Barn before we all walk to the sculpture
11:00 Inauguration of Meditation in a Beech Wood
12:00 Lunch – picnic if the weather is nice
13:00 Conversation between Martin Puryear and Milena Høgsberg (in English)
14:00 Panel & audience questions with Martin Puryear, Adam Ooms, and Marika Wachtmeister (in Swedish/English)
14:30 Coffee break
14:45 Optional activities – Sculpture workshop or Guided tour focusing on materials (in Swedish)
16:00 End of the day
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Puryear studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm in the 1960s and has had a close relationship with Sweden ever since. In 1995 he was invited to Wanås and became interested in the thatched roof tradition in Skåne and Denmark. When the sculpture was originally erected in 1996, the artist worked closely with experienced roofer Adam Ooms, who will return in the summer of 2024 to renovate the sculpture and restore it to its original condition.
