(American/Tennessee, 1927-2017)

Figural Chair, 1993, carved from a solid piece of wood, 44 x 20 x 17 in.

Provenance: Purchased from the Tennessee State Museum Foundation in 1994 (accompanied by the original receipt); Estate of Alice Zimmerman, Nashville, Tennessee

Biography: Born in Cookeville, Tennessee, Bryant was a 1950 graduate of Murray State University and a 1954 graduate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield, Michigan, with a Master's Degree in Fine Arts. He additionally studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Institute in the Visual Arts in American Culture at the University of Delaware, and the Winterthur Museum in 1967. Bryant was a professor at Austin Peay State University from 1964 to 1991. Bryant's artwork is widely collected around the United States and is a part of several museum collections, including the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, the Tennessee State Museum of Art, and the Cheekwood Museum of Art in Nashville; and his works have been displayed at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and at the Governor's Mansion during the Phil Bredesen administration. He was a founding member of the Nashville Artist Guild and the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists (source: Nashville Fine Arts Magazine & The Leaf Chronicle).