Lot 454: Attrib. Puryear Mims, Limestone Sculpture of Kneeling Woman

Attributed to Thomas Puryear Mims (American/Tennessee, 1906-1975), carved limestone sculpture depicting a voluptuous nude woman, kneeling with arms clasped over her head. Unsigned. 30 in. H x 10 1/2 in. W x 11 in. D. Note: This sculpture strongly shows the influence of one of Mims’ teachers, William Zorach. Puryear Mims was born into a distinguished Southern literary family, and earned an English degree from Vanderbilt University  (where he taught that subject for a brief period). His fascination with sculpture eventually led him to study at the Academie Julian in Paris and the Art Students League in New York, where he trained under Zorach and another of America’s pioneer abstractionists, Robert Laurent. He also trained in the studio of the sculptor Saul Baizerman in New York. In 1934, he worked on the Mount Rushmore project as an assistant to Gutzon Borglum, but found it to be more “mechanical” than artistic. He returned to the Art Students League and eventually, to Nashville. Mims then taught art at Vanderbilt University and in 1958 was appointed Sculptor in Residence. He created numerous public sculptures around Nashville, participated in several one-man and multi-artist exhibits, and, following his death, was the subject of a retrospective at Cheekwood. While Mims’s early work was largely representational, he was influenced by cubism in the late 1950s and evolved into an abstract, organic, curvilinear style of sculpture. Women as voluptuous, creative beings, in particular Eve and Athena, were frequent subjects in the 1960s.  (Source: “Thomas Puryear Mims” by Philancy Holder, published by Tennessee Botanical Gardens & Fine Arts Center, Inc., Cheekwood, Nashville, TN, 1977). 

PROVENANCE: Private Nashville collection.

CONDITION: Overall good condition. Some losses and small stains to the base; scattered scuffs to the body, natural irregularities to the stone.