Picturing America--Ladder for Booker T. Washington, 1996

Throughout the library are posters that illustrate classic pieces of American Art. Each week, I will profile one of the posters and give you some of the background on the poster.

This week the poster Ladder for Booker T. Washington located on the wall with the TV. Can you figure out which one it is?

"Puryear’s Ladder reflects handcraft techniques he honed abroad
while studying in West Africa and in Scandinavia. The side rails,
polished strands of wood, are fashioned from a golden ash
sapling that once grew on Puryear’s upstate New York property;
and the ladder’s now sinuous, now sharp, rails, connected
by round, lattice-like rungs that swell in the middle, reflect the
wood’s organic cycle of growth and change. Puryear says that
he “forced” the perspective of the ladder. Although the rungs
begin at a respectable 113⁄4 inches wide at the bottom, the distance
between them diminishes as they climb upward thirty-six
feet. Their span narrows to a dizzying 11⁄4 inches at the top of
the ladder, giving the illusion of much greater height. Suspended
about three feet above the floor and anchored to its surroundings
by almost undetectable wires, Ladder seems to float
precariously in space."

To read more visit the Picturing America website.