Search
Enter a search term.

Search

Take a look through our extensive collection of nearly 2,000 works of art. From historical, religious art to dynamic, contemporary art, you’re bound to discover something new.
Get started

Artistic Splendor: Significant Works from the Thrivent Art Collection,

New exhibition coming soon
Learn more

Rising

Sculpture by late renowned artist Richard Hunt featured outside Thrivent's downtown Minneapolis office.
Learn more
Use the search bar above to find information throughout our website. Or choose a topic you want to learn more about.

Martin Puryear
American, b. 1941
Untitled, 2022
Intaglio
© Martin Puryear, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Meticulous latticework constructs this refined three-dimensional form. Nearly abstract, the shape portrays a Phrygian cap, symbolic of liberty in Roman times and popularized in Revolutionary France. Years after he began working with the motif, Martin Puryear encountered an 18th-century French engraving of a Black man wearing the cap; the image was captioned “Moi libre aussi” (meaning, I am free too). The engraving, created in 1794, left a powerful impression on the artist. The architectural and conceptual possibilities of the Phrygian cap shape are central to Puryear’s work. It is one of only a few dozen motifs that the artist has interpreted repeatedly in print and sculpture over his sixty-year career. By distilling objects to their essential forms, Puryear transforms them into evocative symbols of powerful universal concepts, such as freedom.