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Bill Sawyer

Bill Sawyer (1936 - 2020) was active/lived in North Carolina, Tennessee.  Bill Sawyer is known for Naive style landscape, buildings and figure painting.

Bill Sawyer (Tennessee, 1936-2020) was a self-taught artist from Nashville. He is said to have taken up painting while stationed in France in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

His first exhibition was in Nashville in May of 1959 and he went on to have one-man shows at Daniel Orr's Gallery in San Diego, the Little Gallery in Memphis, TN, and the Parthenon in Nashville. Joseph Patterson, then the president of the American Association of Museums, arranged for a show of Sawyer's work at the Durlacher Brothers Gallery in New York in 1964.

Sawyer was the first untrained artist to have a one-man show at the gallery, and his second show there, in 1966, sold out.

Shortly after this time, Sawyer traveled overseas. After his trip, for unknown reasons, Sawyer seems to have never painted again. He sought privacy, living quietly in Nashville, where he passed away in 2020. After 1966, his work went on to be exhibited at the Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, and in the Art of Tenn   ...  [Displaying 1000 of 2242 characters.]  Artist bio

Artist auction records

.  askART's database currently holds 21 auction lots for Bill Sawyer (of which 21 auction records sold and 0 are upcoming at auction.)

Artist artworks for sale and wanted

.  There are 0 artworks for sale on our website by galleries and art dealers . There are 0 galleries and art dealers listing works of art by Bill Sawyer as either "Wanted" or "For Sale" .

Research resources

.  askART lists Bill Sawyer in 0 of its research Essays. Bill Sawyer has 7 artist signature examples available in our database.

Similar artists

.  There are 3 similar (related) artists for Bill Sawyer available:    John Savitsky,  Lloyd Branson,  Werner Wildner



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Facts about Bill Sawyer

Biography from Case Auctions

Bill Sawyer (Tennessee, 1936-2020) was a self-taught artist from Nashville. He is said to have taken up painting while stationed in France in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

His first exhibition was in Nashville in May of 1959 and he went on to have one-man shows at Daniel Orr's Gallery in San Diego, the Little Gallery in Memphis, TN, and the Parthenon in Nashville. Joseph Patterson, then the president of the American Association of Museums, arranged for a show of Sawyer's work at the Durlacher Brothers Gallery in New York in 1964.

Sawyer was the first untrained artist to have a one-man show at the gallery, and his second show there, in 1966, sold out.

Shortly after this time, Sawyer traveled overseas. After his trip, for unknown reasons, Sawyer seems to have never painted again. He sought privacy, living quietly in Nashville, where he passed away in 2020. After 1966, his work went on to be exhibited at the Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, and in the Art of Tennessee exhibit at the Frist Museum (2006).

Source:  Case Antiques Inc.

Submitted by:  Sarah Campbell Drury


Biography from Lyzon.com

Bill Sawyer, son of Mr. and Mrs. William R. Sawyer, was born in 1936 and was a self-taught artist.   He graduated from Hillsboro High School (North Carolina) in 1954 and then took up painting "just to kill 30 months in France: while in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

His first exhibition was in Nashville in May of 1959.  Subsequently, he had one-man shows at Daniel Orr's Gallery in San Diego, the Little Gallery in Memphis, TN, and the Parthenon in Nashville.

Joseph Patterson, then the president of the American Association of Museums, arranged for a show of Sawyer's work at the Durlacher Brothers Gallery in New York in 1964.   A second show there, in 1966, sold out. Sawyer was the first untrained artist to have a one-man show at Durlacher's.

His work went on to be represented at the Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood in Nashville and in many private collections. Shortly after this time Sawyer traveled overseas, and after his trip Sawyer went through a transformation and vowed never to paint again.

Source:
Tennessee Historical Quarterly


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