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Dumb Luck

Dumb Luck from 1990 is Martin Puryear’s sculpture of tar over wire mesh laid around wood. It is almost five-and-a-half feet tall, three feet wide, and nearly eight feet long. The shape is abstract yet made of pieces that feel somehow familiar. Maybe a baby’s sock with its very short foot was tipped on its side and a teacup handle was stuck on where the ankle would be. The front and top of the main form and the handle are rounded. The bottom and the side where the handle is applied are perfectly flat. The handle itself is tar-and-wire covered, but the plane where it attaches is not. This is the only section where the wood is on full display. It is pale and rough hewn, with natural vertical striations. Short, dark diagonal bands and bars adorn the wood like chevrons.

All of the delicate mesh is painted with black tar, shiny in some places, and more matte in others. It is painted on thinly enough that the repeating criss-cross of the wire is never hidden, and light can shine into the grid. This creates tiny bright spots that contrast with the dark tar. These spots change as the viewer moves around the piece. There are parts of the round handle section where the tar is not so thick, allowing bits of the pale wood it is made of to show through. Tiny drips of tar are frozen in place, only just beginning to fall from both the inside and outside curves of the handle.