Welcome to Susan Lawrence Fine Art

The Lawrence Collection

Represented by Susan Lawrence Fine Art

This website features works of art for sale from the Lawrence Collection. It includes works of art from the inventory of Lawrence Gallery and from the personal collection of Sidney and Anne Lawrence.

The story of Lawrence Gallery:

Anne and Sidney Lawrence moved to Kansas City in 1946. Lawrence Gallery opened in 1949 as the first commercial art gallery in Kansas City. The Lawrences introduced Kansas City to artists that they knew when they lived in New York, and Sidney taught art history at New York University. They exhibited American and European contemporary paintings, drawings, original prints, sculpture and ceramics. They were especially interested in American Social Realism of the 1930's, '40's and '50's. They also exhibited works by local, regional, and international artists. For example, there is a large group of prints by German artists from the 1970's.

Lawrence Gallery was on the cutting edge of the cultural life of Kansas city. In the 1960's Lawrence Gallery and Coffee House at 43^rd and Main Street was the first of its kind in Kansas City. In addition to the art on the walls, the Lawrences offered folk music, poetry readings and showings of experimental films. They provided a place for Kansas City Art Institute students to gather for coffee and spirited conversation.

After the Coffee House was sold to become The Vanguard, Lawrence Gallery moved to Westport Road. In the 1970's when Susan Lawrence joined her mother in the art business, she organized the Kansas City Art Gallery Association and initiated the tradition of simultaneous art openings, which are now known as “First Fridays”.

When Anne Lawrence retired in 1984, Susan Lawrence and Sally Batz merged their galleries as Batz/Lawrence Gallery, which continued the art business until it finally closed its doors in 1988.

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Please feel free to email us with any inquiries: susanfineart@gmail.com