Mary Sims - A Retrospective

Mary Sims: A Retrospective celebrates this distinctive late-twentieth century Southern US artist whose works express a very contemporary form of retro cool.
A painter and printmaker, Sims (1940-2004) was an exceptional colorist whose meticulously constructed compositions are at once both whimsical and off-beat, displaying an idiosyncratic viewpoint and sly sense of humor.
This volume spans her entire career, from her elegant intaglio prints made in the late 1950s, through spare, optically flat portraits of isolated figures on monochrome backgrounds from the 1960s and 1970s, monumental religious paintings that draw on Old Testament stories and mythology to riotous, maximalist still lifes from the 1980s and 90s.
Featuring approximately 65 works, this publication also includes an illustrated biographical essay by art historian Marina Pacini, and a checklist of the accompanying exhibition.

About the author

Marina Pacini is an independent curator and author from Memphis, who retired from the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in November of 2019 after eighteen years as chief curator and curator of American, Modern, and Contemporary art.

Product details

• Authors: Marina Pacini, Pacini Marina
• Publisher: Pan macmillan Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 28.04.2026
• EAN: 9781917273268
• ISBN: 978-1-917273-26-8
• Illustrations: 98 colour illustrations
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Antiques; ART / Individual Artists / General, ART / Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions / General, ART / Techniques / Printmaking, History of art / art & design styles, History of Art, Art techniques & principles, Exhibition catalogues & specific collections, Prints & printmaking, Individual artists, art monographs, The Arts: techniques and principles, Exhibition catalogues and specific collections, Prints and printmaking, ART / History / 20th & 21st Century