Brother Bryan Statue at Five Points South from the collection of Miriam McClung

Brother Bryan Statue at Five Points South. Color correct.

Brother Bryan Statue at Five Points South, c. 1995

Ink on Paper

22.5 x 28.5 in

Inv: 493-MM

$1,350

In Progress

This drawing captures one of Birmingham's most recognizable landmarks: the statue of Brother Bryan kneeling in prayer at Five Points South. James Alexander Bryan was a Presbyterian minister who spent decades serving Birmingham's poor and homeless, and who earned his name by addressing everyone he met as "brother" or "sister." Though she never met Brother Bryan, Miriam was familiar with his story and was moved by his biography.

In this piece, Miriam renders the bronze figure Brother Bryan praying with quick, confident ink strokes, surrounding it with the trees and streetscape of the district she has drawn and painted for decades. The loose, energetic linework gives the scene an immediacy and intimacy of prayer that a more finished rendering would lose.

For a collector, this piece brings together a person and a place with deep roots in Birmingham's history, drawn by an artist who knows Five Points South intimately. It documents both a beloved public figure at the time and the living neighborhood around it, signed and dated by Miriam. Works on paper of this scale and directness are among the most personal in her body of work, and this one carries genuine personal connection with Miriam and the community they both loved alongside.

The piece is in a handsome yet simple black frame that compliments the subject and art.

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