Martin Puryear’s C.F.A.O., 2006-2007, painted and unpainted pine and found wheelbarrow. Courtesy the artist and Donald Young Gallery, Chicago. © 2008 Martin Puryear. Photo Richard P. Goodbody

When Martin Puryear visited the National Gallery of Art last week for the press opening of his retrospective show, he spoke about how he grew up in Washington, and as a child would often visit the gallery. He didn’t imagine that one day the museum would host a large exhibition of his sculptures, but the works seem made for the space: the 36-foot-tall Ladder for Booker T. Washington reaches up into the rotunda of the West Building, and six sculptures in the East Building look as though they’ve been sitting there forever. Forty other works are located in the West Building.

Puryear’s sculptures use wood, wire, tar and found objects, and elements of sculpture and architecture are present in his work. An avid traveler who went to Sierra Leone with the Peace Corps, visited Scandinavia and Japan and worked with Alexander Calder in France, Puryear incorporates craft traditions from around the world in his sculptures.

C.F.A.O., pictured right, is made with a wheelbarrow Puryear found in 1993 while working as an artist-in-residence at Calder’s studio in Saché, France, an impression of a mask made by the Fang people of Gabon, West Africa, and pieces of wood that mimic a ritual headdress. The initials stand for “Compagnie Française de l’Afrique Occidentale,” a French trading company that sailed between Marseilles and West Africa. While in the Peace Corps, Puryear found those initials emblazoned on an abandoned warehouse.