(1924-2016)

—Knoxville History Project —

A Knoxville native, Robert Birdwell grew up in the Lonsdale area before moving to Kingsport, Tenn. The GI Bill allowed him back to move back to Knoxville to study at the University of Tennessee and from there he attended the University of Iowa's respected School of Art.
The Tennessee Valley Authority provided Birdwell with a 30-year career as a staff artist and muralist. He also maintained a personal studio downtown, first on Church Avenue, then at a corner studio in the Peter Kern building on Market Square, years before it became a hotel. After retiring from TVA, Birdwell taught art at Maryville College.
Birdwell often drew inspiration from urban settings with downtown Knoxville his favorite painting location. With the Knoxville Seven, he experimented with degrees of abstraction but also focused on watercolor paintings of downtown Knoxville in a realist style.
Just before his death at 91, Robert Birdwell attended the Knoxville Seven retrospective exhibition at the Knoxville Museum of Art in 2016. Upon his passing, his daughter Ann recalled her father's fondness for Knoxville. "He loved Market Square and all the people in it. He sketched the little ladies selling flowers and vegetables. Mrs. Ford, who sold cottage cheese, and Myrtle Price, who sold corn and peaches. They'd see him coming, and they'd start straightening



their hair. They just loved him."
This painting is featured in the Knoxville Museum of Art's permanent exhibition,Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in East TennesseeSpecial thanks to the Knoxville Museum of Art
Downtown Art Wraps are coordinated by the Knoxville History Project, an educational nonprofit with a mission to research and promote the history and culture of Knoxville. KHP's educational articles and publications feature colorful characters, bizarre tales, interesting buildings, curious traditions, as well as seriously influential local events. Learn more at knoxvillehistoryproject.org

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