Jim LAWRENCE

b. United States of America, 1944

Sigmund Freud 1982

carved timber and paint

2021.62

Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Irwin Hirsh in memory of Etta and Emmanuel Hirsh, 2021

About the artist and their work:

After studying at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, Jim Lawrence became a prominent California-based artist of the 1970s and 80s. His hand-carved timber and roughly painted figurative sculptures of high profile literary and historical figures were featured in exhibitions in Europe and America. Lawrence exhibited with the Cirrus Gallery throughout the 1980s. Cirrus was a prominent Los Angeles-based gallery that presented the first generation of post-conceptual, post-modern and largely California-based artists including John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Chris Burden, Judy Chicago and Vija Celmins.

In 1984 Lawrence was invited by George Mora to present an exhibition of his painted figures at Tolarno Gallery in St. Kilda. This project was highly successful with a number of Lawrence’s works entering prominent collections included the National Gallery of Victoria. Lawrence fondly recalls this exhibition and his time in Melbourne, when he witnessed the Melbourne Cup and discovered the works of Australian artists such as Charles Blackman and Mirka Mora.

Lawrence continued to exhibit with prominent galleries across Germany, Europe and America throughout the 1980s and 90s. In recent times he has been based in Chicago and has worked as an interior designer and editor. He continues to make art on a daily basis, producing smaller carved figures, assemblages and collages inspired by folk stories and are full of wit and humour.