found: African American National Biography, accessed March 13, 2015, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Puryear, Martin; sculptor; born 23 May 1941 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States; BA from Catholic University of America (1963); studied printmaking and wood sculpture at the Swedish Royal Academy of Art, Stockholm; MFA in Sculpture from Yale University (1971); joined the Peace Corps, serving in Sierra Leone, West Africa (1964-1966); taught at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee (1971-1973); produced Rawhide Cone (1974, artist's collection), Bask (1976, Guggenheim Museum), and Circumbent (1976, artist's collection); taught at the University of Maryland (1974-1978) and at the University of Illinois, Chicago (1978-1990); first solo museum exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (1977); his sculptures appeared in the Whitney Museum Biennials (1979 and 1981); represented the United States at the Twentieth São Paulo Biennial in Brazil and won the grand prize; was an artist-in-residence at the Calder Atelier in Sache, France (1992) and at the American Academy, Rome (1997-1998))
