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Thomas Lawson — Dreams of the Arrogant Prince
Thomas Lawson

Dreams of the Arrogant Prince

2020

A tall vertical canvas dominates the eye with the brooding, layered atmosphere that has defined Thomas Lawson's mature practice. In "Dreams of the Arrogant Prince," painted in 2020, oil is worked across a generous 215 by 130 centimetre field in a manner that courts both figuration and dissolution, conjuring the presence of a subject while simultaneously allowing paint to assert its own insistent logic. The title carries a literary and psychological charge, invoking notions of pride, fantasy, and the corrupted imagination, themes that Lawson has long pursued through his engagement with image culture and the ambiguities of representation. Lawson, Scottish-born and long based in Los Angeles, emerged as a critical figure in early 1980s New York, writing influentially about appropriation and the role of painting in a media-saturated world before developing a body of painted work that enacts precisely the tensions he theorized. By 2020, his canvases had moved toward an increasingly gestural and atmospheric register, with forms surfacing and receding within dense, tonally complex grounds. This work belongs to that accomplished late period, where accumulated art historical memory and personal painterly intuition coexist in productive tension, producing images that resist easy resolution while sustaining a powerful emotional presence. Signed by the artist and offered through Rolando Anselmi, the painting presents a significant opportunity to acquire a substantial example from a figure whose contributions to both the theory and practice of contemporary painting remain genuinely consequential. The unframed canvas arrives ready for the collector to present according to their own considered context, its scale ensuring it commands meaningful space in any collection.

Medium
Oil on canvas
Overall
Signed
Yes
Location
Rolando Anselmi, Rome

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About this work

Thomas Lawson, Dreams of the Arrogant Prince, 2020

A tall vertical canvas dominates the eye with the brooding, layered atmosphere that has defined Thomas Lawson's mature practice. In "Dreams of the Arrogant Prince," painted in 2020, oil is worked across a generous 215 by 130 centimetre field in a manner that courts both figuration and dissolution, conjuring the presence of a subject while simultaneously allowing paint to assert its own insistent logic. The title carries a literary and psychological charge, invoking notions of pride, fantasy, and the corrupted imagination, themes that Lawson has long pursued through his engagement with image culture and the ambiguities of representation. Lawson, Scottish-born and long based in Los Angeles, emerged as a critical figure in early 1980s New York, writing influentially about appropriation and the role of painting in a media-saturated world before developing a body of painted work that enacts precisely the tensions he theorized. By 2020, his canvases had moved toward an increasingly gestural and atmospheric register, with forms surfacing and receding within dense, tonally complex grounds. This work belongs to that accomplished late period, where accumulated art historical memory and personal painterly intuition coexist in productive tension, producing images that resist easy resolution while sustaining a powerful emotional presence. Signed by the artist and offered through Rolando Anselmi, the painting presents a significant opportunity to acquire a substantial example from a figure whose contributions to both the theory and practice of contemporary painting remain genuinely consequential. The unframed canvas arrives ready for the collector to present according to their own considered context, its scale ensuring it commands meaningful space in any collection.

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 215 x 130 cm
Year
2020
Signed
Hand-signed by the artist
Seen at
Rolando Anselmi, Rome

Related themes

Mohn Art Collective

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