Thomas Lawson (artist)

Thomas Lawson
Born1951
Glasgow, Scotland
EducationCUNY Graduate Center, University of Edinburgh, University of St Andrews
Known forPainting, public art
MovementPostmodernism, The Pictures Generation
SpouseSusan Morgan
AwardsJohn Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation

Thomas Lawson (born 1951, Glasgow, Scotland) is an artist, writer, editor, and from 1991 to 2022 was the Dean of the School of Art & Design at California Institute for the Arts.[1][2] He emerged as a central figure in ideological debates at the turn of the 1980s about the viability of painting through critical essays, such as "Last Exit: Painting" (1981).[3][4][5] He has been described as "an embedded correspondent [and] polemical editorialist"[6] who articulated an oppositional, progressive position for representational painting from within an increasingly reactionary art and media environment.[7][8] Artforum called his approach to the medium "one of the most cogent and controversial" in the 80s.[9]

Thomas Lawson, Don't Hit Her Again, oil on canvas, 48" x 48", 1981, Private collection

Lawson has received awards from the John S. Guggenheim Foundation,[10] National Endowment for the Arts and Rockefeller Foundation.[2]

His paintings have been exhibited internationally at galleries and museums including Metro Pictures (New York), Anthony Reynolds (London), the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), and Le Magasin (Grenoble).[8][11][12] He work was featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, "The Pictures Generation" (2009), and "A Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation" (1989) at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MoCA).[13][14] He has also created temporary public works in New York City, Glasgow, and Newcastle upon Tyne.[15][16][17]

Lawson's essays have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals such as Artforum, Art in America,[18] Flash Art[19] and October;[20] an anthology of his writing, Mining for Gold, was published in 2004.[21] He has also edited or co-edited the contemporary art journals REALLIFE Magazine, Afterall and East of Borneo.[22][2][23] Lawson currently lives and works in Los Angeles and Edinburgh, Scotland.

  1. ^ Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art. "Oral history interview with Thomas Lawson, 2018 August 9-10," Collections. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b c California Institute of the Arts. Thomas Lawson, Administration and Staff. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  3. ^ Miles, Christopher. "Thomas Lawson", Artforum, Summer 2007.
  4. ^ Lawson, Thomas. "Last Exit: Painting," Artforum, October, 1981, p. 40–7.
  5. ^ Eklund, Douglas. The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.
  6. ^ Bovier, Lionel and Fabrice Stroun. "Introduction," Mining for Gold: Selected Writings (1979–1996), Zurich: JRP|Ringier, 2004.
  7. ^ Bankowsky, Jack. "October 1981," Artforum, October 2001.
  8. ^ a b Heartney, Eleanor. "Thomas Lawson: Metro Pictures," ARTnews, March 1984.
  9. ^ Rothkopf, Scott. "The Painter: Thomas Lawson," Artforum, March 2003.
  10. ^ John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Thomas Lawson, Fellows. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  11. ^ Cork, Richard. "Visual Arts: strange paintings by Thomas Lawson," The Times, 30 May 1995.
  12. ^ Hammer Museum. "The Undiscovered Country", Exhibition, 2005. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  13. ^ The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984" (2009), Exhibitions. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  14. ^ Goldstein, Ann and Mary Jane Jacob. "A Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation," Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1989. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  15. ^ New York Percent for Art. "Thomas Lawson,".
  16. ^ The Bellgrove Station Project. "Thomas Lawson," Catalogue, 1990.
  17. ^ Lawson, Thomas. "Memory Lingers Here," A New Necessity, First Tyne International, Catalogue, Newcastle on Tyne, United Kingdom: Tyne and Wear Museum Services, 1990.
  18. ^ Lawson, Thomas. "Art School Symposium," Art in America, May 2007.
  19. ^ Lawson, Thomas. "The Uses of Representation: Making Some Distinctions," Flash Art, March/April 1979, p. 37–9.
  20. ^ Lawson, Thomas, "Silently, By Means of a Flashing Light," October, #15, 1980.
  21. ^ Lawson, Thomas. Mining for Gold: Selected Writings (1979–1996), Zurich: JRP|Ringier, 2004. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  22. ^ Katzeff, Miriam, Thomas Lawson, and Susan Morgan (eds). REAL LIFE Magazine: Selected Writings and Projects 1979-1994, New York: Primary Information, 2006.
  23. ^ East of Borneo. Contributors. Retrieved 14 January 2018.