Tom Lawson: An Interview

Scottish artist Thomas Lawson (b. 1951) is a painter, critic, and founding editor of REAL LIFE magazine who lives and works in Los Angeles. His paintings are tied to the particularities of the present, and he is especially critical of the art world’s infatuation with ego and creativity. His portraits, appropriated from the print media, represent an intervention in that vein.

“In some long-term way, art is a moral force. I believe that pretty strongly, and that’s why I get so upset with a lot of stuff that seems to me to be either taking that responsibility pretty lightly or disregarding it completely, because that degrades the entire discourse,” Lawson says in this interview with Kate Horsfield.

A historical interview originally recorded in 1983, edited in 2012 with support from the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fund.