David Sawin (April 22, 1922 – ) 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 Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

Biography

Sawin was born in New York City. He attended

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, 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 Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

. t Columbia, Sawin studied under Meyer Schapiro, who admired him and collected his work. Their correspondence in the archives at Columbia University indicates a lifelong friendship. He was also deeply admired by the philosopher and critic Arthur Danto Sawin taught at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

from 1959-1984 in an art department that included Philip Pearlstein,

Walter Rosenblum Walter A. Rosenblum (1919–2006) was an American photographer. He photographed the World War II D-Day landing at Normandy in 1944. He was the first Allied photographer to enter the liberated Dachau concentration camp. He received several militar ...

Lois Dodd Lois Dodd (born 1927 in Montclair, New Jersey) is an American painter. Dodd was a key member of New York's postwar art scene. She played a large part and was involved in the wave of modern artists including Alex Katz and Yvonne Jacquette who exp ...

, and

Lennart Anderson Lennart Anderson (August 22, 1928 – October 15, 2015) was an American painter. His work has been featured at several major museums, including his first major show at the Delaware Art Museum in 1992. He taught on the art faculties of several univ ...

. He also taught at

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

, Williams College, and Columbia University. From 1949 to 1969 he was married to the art historian and writer

Martica Sawin Martica Sawin is an author and art critic. She is the author of ''Surrealism in Exile and the Beginning of the New York School'' (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1995) and surveys on artists such as Roberto Matta Roberto Sebastián Antonio ...

. 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 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 and he was the subject of a retrospective at the Newport Art Museum in 1988, with a catalogue essay by Arthur Danto.

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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sawin, David 1922 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American painters Abstract expressionist artists American abstract artists American Expressionist painters Painters from New York City University of Iowa alumni Columbia University alumni Brown University alumni Brooklyn College faculty Columbia University faculty Sarah Lawrence College faculty Williams College faculty American expatriates in France