Documented artwork / monumental bronze sculpture
Bearing Witness
Credit as documented: Martin Puryear
Martin Puryear's Bearing Witness stands in the semicircular courtyard of Washington's Ronald Reagan Federal Building and International Trade Center, in front of the Woodrow Wilson Center. GSA commissioned the 1997 sculpture through its Art in Architecture Program. Its rounded upper form responds to the building's curved facade, placing a bodily, handcrafted object within a large governmental plaza. GSA describes a deliberately open title that invites associations with observation and public consciousness rather than a single prescribed interpretation.
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At a glance
- Year / version
- 1997
- Materials
- patinated hammer-formed bronze plate
- Documented setting
- outdoor
- Dimensions
- 480 inches (1219.2 cm), single dimension as published by GSA.
- Dimensions apply to
- GSA's dimension field gives no axis; no width, depth or installation envelope is inferred.
- Availability
- Unconfirmed
Places & versions
Installation history
Historical presentations. A past installation does not establish the current location or suitability for a new site.
1997
Ronald Reagan Federal Building and International Trade Center, Washington, District of Columbia
- Site
- Courtyard before the Woodrow Wilson Center, Ronald Reagan Federal Building and International Trade Center
- City
- Washington
- State / region
- DC
- Country
- United States (inferred; not independently confirmed)
- Setting
- outdoor
Installation details checked 2026-10-17.
Materials and construction
Hammer-formed bronze plates were welded at a precision shipbuilding facility. Visible welds and fabrication irregularities preserve a sense of handwork at monumental scale. GSA publishes one dimension, 480 inches, without labeling an axis in the dimension field.
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Sources
- art.gsa.gov ↗ · Checked 2026-10-16
- art.gsa.gov ↗ · Checked 2026-10-17