Anthony Lawrence is a contemporary figurative artist who lived and worked in the UK’s New Forest until his death in November 2022. His family is now managing his magnificent, decades-long archive.
The artist was born in Cambridge in 1951. He attended St. Martin’s School of Art, London (1969-70), and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University (1972-75). He exhibited in group and one-man shows throughout his career.
Here is what some of his contemporaries, critics and friends said about him:
"He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad’. Scaramouche, of course - but not less, Tony Lawrence. To know Lawrence is to share in his laughter. He is a very droll fellow who keeps his friends in stitches. Typically, the target of his humour is himself. But if Lawrence is whimsical about life, he is stone serious about art.
He works tirelessly in an effort to construct his pictures as solidly as finely built cabinetry or well-cobbled footwear. His paintings abound with wit; his sense of the absurd is ever present; but this is an artist who, through long years in the trade, has learned his stuff, and his canvasses constitute a veritable compendium of painterly knowledge. Lawrence is a Post-Modernist who knows what he is about. He claims that in his pictures, the questions they engage are to him more important than any answers they might advance. Lawrence asks wonderful questions!"
Philip Morsberger, Ruskin Master of Drawing, University of Oxford, 1971-84 & Fellow of the California Arts Council
