Cane
Artist: Martin Puryear (American, born 1941)
Author: Jean Toomer (American, 1894-1967)
Designer: Andrew Hoyem (American)
Publisher: The Arion Press, San Francisco, California
Printer: Arion Press, San Francisco
Date: 2000
Dimensions:
page: 11 1/2 x 9 7/8 in. (292 x 251mm)
book: 11 13/16 x 14 3/16 in. (300 x 360mm)
slipcase: 13 3/4 x 15 1/16 in. (350 x 383mm)
sheet: 16 13/16 x 20 5/8 in. (427 x 524mm)
portfolio: 18 3/16 x 21 13/16 in. (462 x 554mm)
Medium: Book with 10 woodblock prints and letterpress text, plus portfolio of 7 woodblock prints, housed in artist’s wooden slipcase
Classification: Books
Credit Line: Museum Purchase
Object number: 2001.4A-I
Label Text:Jean Toomer’s Cane is an experimental novel first published in 1923 to great acclaim. It explores African American life and folk culture rooted in the slave experience. Narrated in a variety of forms, including fiction, poetry, and drama, it takes place in both rural Georgia and the urban North. Toomer (1894–1967), a black poet, playwright, and novelist, was friends with several of the great literary figures of the 1920s and an inspiration for many writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Artist Martin Puryear is a leading contemporary American sculptor chiefly known for his minimalist wood sculptures and love of craftsmanship. Puryear first read Cane in the 1970s when he was teaching and living in the South, and the book has been important to him ever since. His series of 10 woodcuts consist of seven large abstract portraits of female characters in the book and three smaller reinterpretations of the arcs that Toomer himself created as designs in the original publication. Puryear’s wooden slipcase was produced from four woods: African wenge, Swiss pear, Italian walnut, and New England maple; the colors of the woods are symbolic of human skin tones.
Artist Martin Puryear is a leading contemporary American sculptor chiefly known for his minimalist wood sculptures and love of craftsmanship. Puryear first read Cane in the 1970s when he was teaching and living in the South, and the book has been important to him ever since. His series of 10 woodcuts consist of seven large abstract portraits of female characters in the book and three smaller reinterpretations of the arcs that Toomer himself created as designs in the original publication. Puryear’s wooden slipcase was produced from four woods: African wenge, Swiss pear, Italian walnut, and New England maple; the colors of the woods are symbolic of human skin tones.
DescriptionThis artists' book is bound in full leather. The text is letterpress printed on Biblio paper, mouldmade in Germany. The 7 full-page woodcuts and 3 section headers are printed on Kitakata paper, handmade in Japan. The book (special edition only) is housed in a wooden slipcase designed by the artist and constructed in his studio from four woods --African wenge, Swiss pear, American walnut and sugar maple. A signed, numbered, and untrimmed suite of the 7 woodcuts on Kitakata paper is housed in a separate cloth-covered portfolio.
This artists' book is bound in full leather. The text is letterpress printed on Biblio paper, mouldmade in Germany. The 7 full-page woodcuts and 3 section headers are printed on Kitakata paper, handmade in Japan. The book (special edition only) is housed in a wooden slipcase designed by the artist and constructed in his studio from four woods --African wenge, Swiss pear, American walnut and sugar maple. A signed, numbered, and untrimmed suite of the 7 woodcuts on Kitakata paper is housed in a separate cloth-covered portfolio.
This artists' book is bound in full leather. The text is letterpress printed on Biblio paper, mouldmade in Germany. The 7 full-page woodcuts and 3 section headers are printed on Kitakata paper, handmade in Japan. The book (special edition only) is housed in a wooden slipcase designed by the artist and constructed in his studio from four woods --African wenge, Swiss pear, American walnut and sugar maple. A signed, numbered, and untrimmed suite of the 7 woodcuts on Kitakata paper is housed in a separate cloth-covered portfolio.
Not on view
In Collection(s)