Anthony Meier Fine Arts is pleased to present a solo exhibition of never-before-seen work by jazz musician and painter Claude Lawrence. On view from 24 May – 24 June 2022, the exhibition showcases his masterful array of paintings that range from fully abstract to subtly figurative. These works created over the past seven years are the artist’s first presentation with a major commercial gallery and mark his debut on the West Coast.
The exhibition is open by appointment only. Click here to make a reservation.
Lawrence grew up in Chicago and attended an arts and music school alongside composer Anthony Braxton and drummer Jack DeJohnette. In the mid-1960s he moved to New York and toured the United States as a saxophonist for the next 20 years. During his time in New York, Lawrence became a fixture of the Downtown Loft Jazz scene and was enmeshed in a milieu of the most notable artists and musicians of the day - he took lessons with Ornette Colman, encountered Frank Bowling and Edvins Strautmanis at Peter Bradley's Firehouse on Lafayette Street and forged longtime friendships with Jack Whitten and Joe Overstreet.
"Lawrence's work often operates as a fusion of improvisation and subject matter governed by memory akin to the way that a jazz musician follows the established chord progressions and recycles it to render it continually new."
- Andrianna Campbell, art historian
These relationships informed Lawrence’s perspective not only on contemporary art and music but on the potential political resonances of these creative modes of expression. He recalls that when discussing Norman Lewis with Jack Whitten, the latter observed how significant it was for an African-American artist to gain recognition for anything other than figurative work, especially since figuration was more likely to be regarded as political than abstraction. Even though Lawrence’s compositions have almost always obviated referential imagery, he found that his work could be mobilized to enact meaningful social change.
This crossover between jazz and abstraction can also be seen in Lawrence’s energized compositions of bold colors and impassioned brushstrokes, wherein graffiti-like marks jostle alongside energetic but deliberate scrawl and more meditative fluid works hum with frenetic movement.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Claude Lawrence (b.1944, Chicago) is a professional musician and painter who has created an expansive body of work over the past four decades. Accustomed to his touring lifestyle as a saxophonist, Lawrence has traveled across the United States, Mexico and Europe. Ever-changing scenery has provided fresh inspiration and encouraged Lawrence to continually adapt his work and medium to his location. His recent body of work, completed both in France and on residency at The Church, in Sag Harbor, NY, are his most monumental paintings yet, both in scale and ambition.
His paintings reside in over 30 museum collections across the country, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, American Folk Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Parrish Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, High Museum of Art, Perez Art Museum Miami, African American Museum in Los Angeles, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
PRESS RELEASE
Anthony Meier Fine Arts is pleased to present a solo exhibition of never-before-seen work by jazz musician and painter Claude Lawrence. On view from 24 May – 24 June 2022, the exhibition showcases his masterful array of paintings that range from fully abstract to subtly figurative. These works created over the past seven years are the artist’s first presentation with a major commercial gallery and mark his debut on the West Coast.
