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Description:
Artist: Sandra Lawrence
Title: Nude
Year: 1978
Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 250
Paper Size: 24.5" x 24.5"
The Pop Art movement of the 60's achieved international
acceptance, but historians have drawn a distinction between
American and British Pop Art. Many of them have pointed out
that the Pop phenomenon was recognizable earlier in Britain
than it was in the United States. It certainly had a liberating
effect on British artists.
Among them was Sandra Lawrence. She translated
the American life-style in Britain, which often becomes the
British aspect of Americanism in England. Lawrence's work is
a documentary of this social transference of culture. She is
one of the new lights to emerge from the pop-realist move ment
in Britain.
Influenced by photo realism in the 70's, her
style moved toward romantic realism. The same clarity of technique
she demonstrated in her Pop art, Lawrence applied to her still-life
series, using less political subject matter. Here, she has reproduced
objects to the point where they be come trompe l'oeil.
The use of trompe l'oeil tradition of painting
can be best explained through a basic understanding of physical
perception. If the depth in a painting is removed, or very greatly
reduced, then the eye may be fooled into mistaking a painted
subject for a real object. As illustrated in one of Sandra Lawrence's,
works, for example, the muscular adjustment required to change
the focus of the eye from the fold in a napkin to the flat linen
is very slight. If you paint such things, the illusion of reality
may be obtained at least for the moment. The momentum of the
illusion is extremely important. Our pleasure in trompe l'oeil
arises from the realization that our oeil has been tromped!
Sandra Lawrence chooses objects, situations
and compositional devices that involve as little perception
of depth as possible. The eye stops at the picture plane, while
the objects placed upon this flat surface seem to protrude into
the spectator's space. To further fool the eye, all of Lawrence's
paintings keep the scale of her subject close to the size in
which the represented object is seen in normal experience. This
also explains why trompe l'oeil is almost entirely used for
still life. Still life deals with objects small enough to be
represented in their natural size on an canvas' of manageable
proportions.
Lawrence's versatility and adventurousness
led her to undertake the task of creating the monumental Overlord
Tapestry. She was commissioned in 1968 by Lord Dulverton to
design and paint full-size cartoons for the Overlord Embroidery.
It was commissioned as a permanent memorial to and record of
Operation Overlord, the code words for the Allied invasion of
Normandy in 1944. The embroidery measures 272 feet and is the
largest of its kind in the world. It is 33 feet longer than
the 11th century Bayeaux Tapestry, which in many ways is the
Overlord's medieval counterpart.
Given the extremely difficult medium of pastel
and its limitations, Sandra Lawrence has transposed her imagery
into a strangely ethereal and surreal series of still lifes.
MAJOR EXHIBITIONS
1968-1972
Commissioned to design and paint full sized cartoons
for "The Overlord Embroidery"- longest embroidered tapestry
in the world.
1972
The Pension Building, Washington
1973
The Canadian war Museum, Ottawa
The Contederation Art Gallery & Museum, Charlotte Town
The Galhousie Art Gallery, Halifax
1974
Harbour Front 74, Queens Quay. west Toronto
The Pacific National Exhibition, Exhibition Park, Vancouver
The Aibena College of Art., Calgary
The Minto Armories, Winnipeg
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
1975
The Guild Hall, London
The Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts- 114th Annual Exhibition
(by invitation)
Finalist in Revolution USA 200 (a competitive exhibition
of paintings to commemorate the Bicentenary of the American
Revolution) Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
1976
The National Scottish Museums, Edinburg
1978
The Overlord Embroidery was unveiled by Her Majesty
Oueen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, at the Whitbread Museum,
Chiswell Street, City of London, where it is on permanent
display.
One person exhibition at the Harkness House Gallery
at 75th Street, New York City, of the 34 original paintings
for the Overlord Embroidery, each 8 feet by 3 feet. The
opening was a charity benefit for the New York Branch
of the English Speaking union and the Harkness Ballet
School. Also shown were 37 paintings (oils, acrylics and
pastels). Colby-Sawyer College, New Hampshire
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