Clarence Stringfield

(1903-1976) born in Erin TN, died in Nashville
Bust of a Man, c.1968
wood, 12 1/4 x 6 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches, 2002.9

Stringfield began working with wood as a furniture carver at the Murray Chair Company in Nashville. He then moved on to work at the Lyzon Gallery in Nashville as a picture frame carver. When Stringfield contracted tuberculosis in 1934, he began creating animal and rural people folk art carvings out of softwoods using his pocket knife. In 1970 his work was shown at the American Folk Art Museum in New York. Stringfield’s carvings can be found in the private collections of artist and fellow employee at the Lyzon Gallery, Red Grooms; sculptor Chaim Gross, artist and art critic Alexander Brook and artist Sterling Strauser. His work is in the collections of the Tennessee State Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

“I started carving as a hobby and it kept growing and people became interested in it. I always wanted to carve.”—Stringfield