Three hundred and nine slides; the earliest being from 1970, until the last one dated 2004. Spanning almost forty years of drawing and painting. Finally I came around scanning them after having brought them with me in 2007, and having discussed them numerous times before with Lawrence. He handed them over in complete trust of which I ever will be grateful. But, before starting the actual work, I knew they had to be cleaned thoroughly first. Front and back of each one were done with cotton swabs; getting the dust and grease off, and sometimes even the fungus. It helped a lot to regain their brightness. However, most remain in horrible condition. Climate in Cuba is very humid and keeping them stored in sealed boxes doesn’t preserve their quality. Some are damaged too, or have simply faded. A lot were shot out of focus. But, all in all I’m glad to see these paintings; they make me smile, saturated as they are with simplicity. Especially the ones from the eighties I’m most fond of; they have a crudeness which perfectionate Lawrence’s naive style.
I had to make a choice on how far I would rework the scans. I decided to cut the edges pretty rough, to keep the attention on the paintings and not on the surroundings that were present in the slides as well. And as I’m not really a software expert who could do a much better job, I thought it would be best to only sharpen the contrast and brighten the colors. Not too much, though, as I don’t know how the paintings look like in real life, although I’m very familiar with Lawrence’s pallet. I must say, however, that the off-quality shown somehow even adds to their authenticity.
It is, of course, way more important to give the viewer an overall account of what Lawrence has been doing throughout his career, than keeping these in the drawer because of their poor quality. Sliding through one can see how Lawrence - as an artist - developed himself. As you probably know, there is no such thing as valueing a work of art, whether it be in money or appreciation - and better would be both - without knowing its context, evolution and influence. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of most paintings are unknown.
