Portrait of Claude Lawrence with “Sundown Town” (2022), on view in his exhibition “Reflections on Porgy & Bess at Venus Over Manhattan,” 2024. | Courtesy the artist and Venus Over Manhattan, New York
VENUS OVER MANHATTAN gallery in New York announced its representation Claude Lawrence (b. 1944), an abstract painter whose work is intrinsically influenced by his longstanding music practice. Earlier this year, “Claude Lawrence: Reflections on Porgy & Bass” was on view at Venus Over Manhattan, the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery.
“Reflections on Porgy & Bass” presented new works informed by the themes, characters, and songs of George Gershwin’s 1935 Broadway musical “Porgy & Bess,” an American opera with an all-Black cast. Featuring exuberant colorways and free-flowing suggestions of various forms distinguished by black outlines, the dramatic, improvisational paintings represent the style and approach to abstraction Lawrence has developed over the decades.
“Claude’s work breathes with a sense of freedom, reflecting the improvisational flow of jazz and the confidence of an artist unafraid to follow his artistic instincts,” Adam Lindemann, founder of Venus Over Manhattan, said in the representation announcement. “It was our great pleasure to present Reflections on Porgy & Bess this spring and to introduce new audiences to his singular and continuously evolving creative practice. We are now delighted to bring Claude formally into our program and to continue to engage collectors, curators, and the public with his unique vision and exceptional work.”
“My work is improvisation, totally. It’s a what you see is what you get kind of thing.” — Claude Lawrence
Born in Chicago, Ill., Lawrence engaged with art and music from a young age and started playing the saxophone when he was 14. After high school, he joined a jazz trio, and for years performed gigs between Chicago and New York, where his social circle included musicians as well as visual artists such as Jack Whitten (1939-2018) and Peter Bradley. By 1986, Lawrence was pursuing a painting practice of his own in parallel with his music career. Today, he lives and works in Sag Harbor, N.Y., an artist community that has historically drawn Black artists.
The Venus Over Manhattan exhibition followed recent solo exhibitions of Lawrence at Tiwani Contemporary in London (2023), David Lewis Gallery in East Hampton, N.Y. (2023), and Anthony Meier in San Francisco, Calif. (2022). His work has also been shown at Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, N.Y., and he was featured in “Creative Haven: Black Artists of Sag Harbor” (2023) at Long Island Museum in Stony Brook, N.Y.
Last year, Lawrence spoke with Parrish Art Museum about his life and work. “I was born in Chicago and I really left, you know, to go to New York at around 20 years old because New York had the pull, the magnet for the arts,” Lawrence said. About his painting, he added: “My work is improvisation, totally. It’s a what you see is what you get kind of thing…I approach painting as I do playing a tune. It comes.” CT
FIND MORE about Claude Lawrence in an extensive oral history about his early life, jazz career, and painting practice, conducted by fellow artist George Negroponte, and published by BOMB magazine in 2022. Negroponte also interviewed Lawrence for BOMB in 2021
CLAUDE LAWRENCE, “Sportin’ Life,” 2022 (acrylic on canvas, work: 79 x 75 inches / 200.7 x 190.5 cm; framed: 80 1/4 x 76 1/4 inches / 203.8 x 193.7 cm). | © Claude Lawrence, Courtesy the artist and Venus Over Manhattan, New York
CLAUDE LAWRENCE, “Plenty,” 2022 (acrylic on canvas; Work: 79 x 75 1/2 in (200.7 x 191.8 cm; framed: 80 1/4 x 76 3/4 inches / 203.8 x 194.9 cm). | © Claude Lawrence, Courtesy the artist and Venus Over Manhattan, New York
CLAUDE LAWRENCE, “The Inquisitors,” 2022 (oil on canvas; 75 1/2 x 107 inches / 191.8 x 271.8 cm). | © Claude Lawrence, Courtesy the artist and Venus Over Manhattan, New York
FIND MORE about the mixed reception the American opera Porgy & Bess has received over the years from “The Complex History and Uneasy Present of ‘Porgy and Bess’ in The New York Times and a Georgia Public Broadcasting report that includes insights from scholar Naomi André
BOOKSHELF
Earlier this year, Venus Over Manhattan published “Claude Lawrence: Reflections on Porgy & Bess” on the occasion of the artist’s exhibition at the gallery. Featuring a conversation between Claude Lawrence and artist Alvaro Barrington, the volume is a limited edition of 350. “Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement” by Naomi André includes a chapter titled, Contextualizing Race and Gender in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.
