Puryear Mims (1906-1975) was born into a distinguished Southern literary family and he earned an English degree from Vanderbilt University. His fascination with sculpture 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.

In 1934, he worked on the Mount Rushmore project as an assistant to Gutzon Borglum. He eventually returned to Nashville and taught art at Vanderbilt University and in 1958 was appointed Sculptor in Residence. He created a number of notable sculptures around Nashville and was the subject of a retrospective at Cheekwood. He was influenced by cubism in the late 1950s and evolved into an abstract, organic, curvilinear style of sculpture.

Mims retired from Vanderbilt in 1972 and taught privately until his death three years later. Mims's work is sometimes compared with another prominent Nashville sculptor, William Edmondson. The two artists were displayed together in a 1988 exhibition at the Nashville Metropolitan Arts Commission Gallery, "Spirit and Form: the Art of William Edmondson and Puryear Mims."

21" Tall x 15"Deep