MARY SIMS
Building a Portrait: Still Life Paintings
from the 1980s
3 June - 12 July 2025
Because what I really want is that everyday thing. I want to paint, I don’t want to stand in a
roomful of great paintings that I did. I want to paint.
With my attraction to reality, as long as my eyes are open there are all sorts of things nagging at me to paint.
It’s really like an itch that has to be scratched....
I’ve had a lot of trouble with intellectual views of art and evaluating work in words.... I don’t care
about what anything means. I just care about what it looks like. If it’s a real fine visual image then people will enjoy looking at it.... I worship eyes and eyesight. And it undercuts the whole thing to wrap it in words...
Mary Sims (1940-2004) was born in Jackson, Tennessee, raised in Memphis, and painted for decades in a large studio beneath a Victorian cottage in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Among many career highlights Sims was the first woman accepted into the renowned printmaking department at the University of Iowa. She did further studies in Rome and then received her MFA from Tulane University. Her work was frequently exhibited in the region and far beyond, including with long-term dealers in Houston, Tulsa, Los Angeles, New York, and of course, Memphis. A Sims portrait became catnip for families, executives, and celebrities (including Burt Reynods and Mary Tyler Moore) who appreciated her wit; her elaborate still-life paintings are still in demand. Sims works are in many public collections, including the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts; The Assisi Foundation, Memphis; the Kemper Collection, Kansas City; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson; Rhodes College, Memphis; and the Tennessee State Museum.
Artwork List
In Order of Appearance
Untitled (amaryllis), 1985, acrylic on canvas, 44 x 43.50
Potiphar Cornuto, c. 1978, acrylic on canvas, 114 x 126
Eros and Anteros, 1988, acrylic on canvas, 23 x 22
Untitled (lady with three dogs), c. 1978, acrylic on canvas, 72.75 x 70.75
Two Portraits, 1985, acrylic on canvas, 52 x 36
Untitled (man on park bench), 1980, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 57.25
Noah and His Family, 1980, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 96
Another Birthday Alone, 1988, acrylic on canvas, 25 x 21.75