Martin Puryear speaking at MoMA

Hard Copy Source; Up From Slavery By Booker T. Whashington

"I was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia.  I am not quite sure the exactn place or exact date of my  birth, but at any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at some time.  As nearly as I have been able to learn"                                              -Booker T. Whashington

When Booker T. wrote this he was trying to describe the type of oppression that he faced as a young child.  He was trying to show future generations what he went through as an African American.

Who is Booker T Whashington??

Booker T was a African American leader and educator, and founder of Tuskegee Institute.  Booker T was the head of the school between 1881 to 1915.  Booker T was considered to be the most influential black leader of his time

one sentence that summerizes The Ladder to Booker T. Whashington

The Ladder to Booker T. Whashington to me seems like at the bottom to be trapped in a world of darkness and enclosedment but towards the top is a silver lining, an escape route from the enclosment.

Hard Copy Source for Booker T. Washington, 1996

Martin Puryear made the ladder in 1996 out of Wood (ash and maple) and stands 85 feet high.  The ladder is in The Modern Art Mueseum of Fort Worth.

Source:

Picturing America, teachers resource book, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITITES

Comments on Ladder for Booker T. Washington, 1996

"I didn’t set out to make a work about Booker T. Washington. The work was really about using a sapling...and making a work that had a kind of forced perspective, which made it appear to recede into space faster than it does. It’s an idea I’ve been fascinated with for a long time. It requires a certain length- it’s a piece that couldn’t have been done small. As it was, it was thirty-six feet long. It’s the ideas of diminution in space and the manipulation of that perception that interest me."

- Martin Puryear

Heres a photo that puts the size in perspective

Ladder for Booker T. Washington, 1996