EXPRESSION ACCELERATING
mid-career paintings
Welcome to the wild, wonderful world of Mary Sims.
EXPRESSION ACCELERATING shows Sims (1940-2004) moving from flat, stylized and simply colored paintings toward her signature magically flat realism all dating from toward her signature magically flat realism. The paintings all date from the 1970s, the middle section of her long career.
As a genre, still life painting is reverent, often quiet, and contemplative. Sims’ take is tranquil with a reduced color palette and delicate flowers. Speaking about the act of painting and the paintings themselves Sims said, “It’s emotional... I think I’m completely an unintellectual painter. The whole thing has got to be visual. It should fail or succeed just visually.”
Sims color palettes and subjects are a direct link to the decade’s free-flowing and dynamic sensibilities: she gravitates toward muddy or electric greens, muted or vibrant yellows, and a variety of reds. With astonishing scale and stunning use of color, her works produce a hypnotic effect on viewers, linking their present experience to a more mystical past.
Theatricality and comedy have always embodied Sims’ portraits, and early paintings all invoke white as a grounding element. Monstera leaves surround a man in a white suit on a white bench; a mother’s pregnant stomach is almost disguised by the surrounding white expanse. The portraits are larger-than-life portrayals of their subjects and viewers delight in color, texture, and ephemera within them.
Mary Sims was considered a Memphis painter although she lived and worked in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for the majority of her career and life. She was the first woman accepted into the printmaking department at the University of Iowa, where she received a BFA. She did further studies in Rome and then received her MFA from Tulane University. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she taught art at Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College). Her work was frequently exhibited in the region and far beyond.
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST
❖ Pot of Tulips, acrylic on canvas, 36x36, c. 1975
❖ Untitled man in knickers, acrylic on canvas, 72.5x49, c. 1970
❖ Untitled potted caladium against circle, acrylic on canvas, 26.5x26.5, c. 1970
❖ Untitled irises in grey vase, acrylic on canvas, 36x36, c. 1972
❖ Untitled yellow pitcher, acrylic on canvas, 24x24, c. 1970
❖ Untitled morning glories on fence, acrylic on canvas, 48x60, c. 1975
❖ Untitled pink & rose irises in vase, acrylic on canvas, 36x36, c. 1972
❖ Untitled 3 parrots, acrylic on canvas, 40x40, c. 1977
❖ Untitled lady in wicker, acrylic on canvas, 42x36, c. 1970
❖ Untitled man on park bench, acrylic on canvas, 72x57.25, c. 1975
❖ Untitled daffodils in clear jar, acrylic on canvas, 13.25x13.25, c. 1970
❖ Untitled pregnant profile, acrylic on canvas, 60x43.75, c. 1975
❖ Dr. Feelgood, acrylic on canvas, 82x58.5, c. 1977
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