33

Carroll Harris Simms

(1924-2010)

Untitled (Figure).

Terra cotta, 1949.
Signed and dated on the underside
Approximately 14 in. (35.6 cm.) high.

  • Provenance:
    Gift from the artist to classmates at the Toledo Museum School (1949).
    Thence by descent, private collection.

    This modernist figure is an exciting debut — a very scarce example of the early work of ceramicist, sculptor and educator Carroll Harris Simms and his first artwork to come to auction. Born in Bald Knob, Arkansas, Simms was raised in Toledo, Ohio. He attended Hampton Institute in Virginia (1944-45); the University of Toledo (1945-47); the Toledo Museum School of Art in Ohio (1945-48); Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (1948-50), where he earned a BFA and MFA, becoming its first African American graduate, and Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan (1949-50).

    In 1950, the Toledo Museum of Art honored Simms with a solo exhibition and he became a professor of sculpture at Texas Southern University in Houston. There he joined John Biggers, the department founder and his former Hampton colleague to anchor the HBCU's visual art program in sculpture. Simms had a distinguished career, including receiving two successive Fulbright fellowships from 1954-1956 to study sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he worked with sculptor Jacob Epstein. Simms later traveled to Nigeria in 1968 to study the pottery and sculpture traditions of the Yoruba and Ibo, and then in 1973 travelled to West Africa where he lectured at Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone, the University of Liberia in Monrovia; and the University of Lagos and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. As a member of the United States Zonal Committee, Simms also participated in the historic assembly of Pan-African artists, Festac '77 in Lagos and Kaduna, Nigeria. Simms served as professor of art at Texas Southern University until his retirement in 1987.

    Carroll Harris Simms's artwork is included in numerous museum and private collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Dallas African American Museum, the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, the Hampton University Museum and the University Museum at Texas Southern University. Biography courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.
  • Condition:
    Please contact the Specialist for the auction to request a condition report.

    Condition reports and additional images are provided as a courtesy and should be used by you to aid in the formation of your own opinion regarding condition. All material is sold subject to Swann's standard Terms and Conditions of Sale as published in our catalogues and posted on our website, and include the following terms: (1) all property is sold "as-is"; and (2) works cannot be returned on the basis of condition.

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October 7, 2025 12:00 PM EDT
New York, NY, US

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