Lot 717: Puryear Mims Portrait Bust of Robert Penn Warren

Thomas Puryear Mims (American/Tennessee, 1906-1975) painted plaster or ceramic sculpture depicting the head and neck of the writer Robert Penn Warren, atop an integral square base. Unsigned. 17 in. H x 8 in. W x 8 1/2 in. D. Note: Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989) was born in Guthrie, Kentucky, attended school in Clarksville, TN, and college at Vanderbilt University. While still an undergraduate at Vanderbilt, Warren became associated with the group of poets there known as the Fugitive Poets and later, the Southern Agrarians. Warren went on to study at other institutions and to win virtually every major award given to writers in the United States and was the only person to receive a Pulitzer Prize in both fiction (once) and poetry (twice). While at Vanderbilt, one of Warren’s key mentors was Edwin Mims, the father of sculptor Puryear Mims. Puryear Mims was about the same age as Robert Penn Warren and the two men ran in similar circles: Puryear Mims also  earned an English degree from Vanderbilt University and even taught the subject for a brief period. Mims’ 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 two of America’s pioneer abstractionists, Robert Laurent and William Zorach. He also worked 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. He returned to the Art Students League and eventually, to Nashville. Mims 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. (Mims biography source: Philancy Holder, catalog for the aforementioned Cheekwood exhibit). 

PROVENANCE: The collection of Michael and Margaret Zibart, Nashville, TN.

CONDITION: Scattered chipping throughout, most noticeable on base, where there is a 1″ loss.