Early in his career, Martin Puryear rejected the Minimalist belief that a work of art can have no references: If something looks like it refers to nothing, then it actually doesn’t. And yet Puryear is not without influences. A big one was the time he spent as a member of the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, between 1964 and 1966. There, Puryear experimented rigorously with local techniques and materials, focusing especially on woodcuts. Those years sharpened his eye, and the work he produced was almost anthropological—careful drawings of flora, local houses, and animals. This exhibition at MFA Boston, the first major survey of Puryear’s work, ranges across mediums that include, leather, marble, and wood. —Jimmy Lux Fox