David Sawin
{{short description|American painter}}
David Sawin (April 22, 1922 – {{death date and age|1992|06|28|1922|04|22}}) was an American painter working primarily in New York City during the middle part of the 20th century. His style, though singular, was described by Meyer Schapiro and Arthur Danto as second-generation abstract expressionism.
Biography
Sawin was born in New York City. He attended Brown University, received a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.A. from the University of Iowa. He studied in Paris on the G.I. Bill with Fernand Léger.{{cite journal |last1=Van Siclin |first1=Bill |title=David Sawin tribute |journal=The Providence Journal and Evening Bulletin |date=July 2, 1992}}
At Columbia, Sawin studied under Meyer Schapiro, who admired him and collected his work.{{cite book |last1=Carrier |first1=David |title=The Aesthete in the City |date=1994 |publisher=Penn State University Press |isbn=978-0-271-00943-8 |pages=281 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RY4iBEhepysC&q=meyer+schapiro+David+Sawin&pg=PA281}} Their correspondence in the archives at Columbia University indicates a lifelong friendship. He was also deeply admired by the philosopher and critic Arthur Danto{{cite journal |last1=Rigney, Rowlands |first1=Robert, Penelope |title=Ovrrated/Underrated |journal=ARTnews |date=December 1, 2000 |url=http://www.artnews.com/2000/12/01/underrated-overrated/}}{{cite journal |last1=Frank |first1=Elizabeth |title=Art's Off-The-Wall Critic |journal=New York Times Magazine |date=November 19, 1989 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/19/magazine/art-s-off-the-wall-critic.html}}
Sawin taught at Brooklyn College from 1959-1984 in an art department that included Philip Pearlstein, Walter Rosenblum, Lois Dodd, and Lennart Anderson. He also taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Williams College, and Columbia University.
From 1949 to 1969 he was married to the art historian and writer Martica Sawin.
His work is held in numerous private collections. It was included in the 1955 Annual Exhibit of Contemporary Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art{{cite web |title=David Sawin |url=http://www.askart.com/artist_keywords/David_Sawin/10047378/David_Sawin.aspx |website=AskART}} and in “New York School – Second Generation” at the Jewish Museum in 1957. A 1986 exhibit at the Waverly gallery was the subject an article in The Nation by Arthur Danto {{cite journal |last1=Danto |first1=Arthur |title=David Sawin |journal=The Nation |date=October 18, 1986 |pages=385–388 |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Art%3B+David+Sawin.-a04472687}} and he was the subject of a retrospective at the Newport Art Museum in 1988, with a catalogue essay by Arthur Danto.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}
Work
Meyer Schapiro and Arthur Danto held the view that Sawin’s paintings both share a certain spirit with the abstract expressionist movement yet decidedly defy that categorization.{{cite book |last1=Danto |first1=Arthur |title=Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present |date=January 1997 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520208469 |pages=15–24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ad0DOXL3lCEC&q=Encounters+and+Reflections+David+Sawin&pg=PA21}}
References
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Category:20th-century American painters
Category:Abstract expressionist artists
Category:American abstract artists
Category:American Expressionist painters
Category:Painters from New York City
Category:University of Iowa alumni
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:Brown University alumni
Category:Brooklyn College faculty
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:Sarah Lawrence College faculty