Bill Sawyer (American/Tennessee, 1936-2020) oil on canvasboard modernist painting depicting a young man seated alone at a table, his face half-shadowed. A bud vase holding a flower with a broken stem sits before him, with two dropped petals on the table, and the painting is rendered in melancholy shades of blue. Signed "Bill Sawyer" lower right. Whitewashed molded frame. Sight: 19 1/2" H x 15 1/2" W. Frame: 23 1/2" H x 19 1/2" W. 

Biography: Bill Sawyer 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 in the 1950s. 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).

PROVENANCE: Private Nashville Collection. 

Overall very good condition. A couple of tiny flakes at lower left edge, and a couple of trapped brush hairs at center. Some wear and shrinkage to frame.