Claude Lawrence in his exhibition ‘Reflections on Porgy & Bess’ at Venus Over Manhattan, 39 Great Jones Street, New York, 2024. Courtesy the artist and Venus Over Manhattan.
Yet his profound love for music would reverberate within his artistic practice indefinitely. Lawrence, who is now 80 years old, has created works held in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and the Studio Museum in Harlem over the course of his six-decade career.
The artist’s energetic series, comprised of 22 abstract paintings, follows Gershwin’s opera sequentially; many of the painted works, such as, have titles based on characters from the original production. One of the largest and most vibrant paintings in the collection,—rendered in yellow, blue, and peach tones—is titled after the most celebrated song of the opera, which has been performed by legends like Nina Simone and Charlie Parker himself.