Lawrence W. Lee
Biographical Summary 2020
Lawrence says that he has known love and loss in near equal measure. He is interested in almost everything, but has a special fondness for language and subatomic physics.
"Most of what I know about making art I learned In high school," he says. "I went on to receive essentially worthless degrees in art (BFA ’69, MA ‘70). I started showing in Tucson galleries in 1970 and had my first one man show in 1976 at age 29. Since then, I have had solo shows in fine galleries from coast to coast and in Europe."
- He has been an Honorary Artist Member of Tucson’s storied Mountain Oyster Club since 1988.
- He retired to a Caribbean island in about 1999. But life continued to happen in unanticipated ways, and he returned to the easel in 2014.
- He has published three books and his poetry has appeared in several print and online journals and in an international anthology.
- In January, 2020, the Tucson Museum of Art accepted a second Lawrence Lee painting into its permanent collection.
- In January, 2020, he again collaborated with Ballet Tucson by creating seven Hollywood style theatrical flats painted in a highly abstract homage to the greats of American jazz, especially that of Dave Brubeck. The finished panels comprised a work 8’ high and over 30’ long.
- Lawrence was recently honored by having his work included in “Curatorial Volume.2, Leaders in Contemporary Art.”
- Notably, Lawrence recently completed a major commission for the Interstellar Research Group’s 2021 Symposium.
He continues to live and work in Tucson.