John D. Lawrence
John D. Lawrence, Callaway Professor of Art and Design, is Callaway Professor
of Art and Design and the Director of the Lamar Dodd Art Center of LaGrange College.
Mr. Lawrence studied at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi and received a
Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Atlanta College of Art and a Master of Fine
Arts degree from Tulane University. He joined the faculty at LaGrange College in
1970. Since that time he has been active in the cultural life of LaGrange, as well
as Georgia and the Southeast area in general. He is a frequent lecturer at civic
clubs, colleges and art related meetings and has served as juror of many exhibitions
throughout the Southeast. As the Director of the Lamar Dodd Art Center, he has
established one of the largest college museum collections of twentieth century
photography in the Southeast.
In 1982, Mr. Lawrence served as Visual Arts Director of the Atlanta Arts Festival
in Piedmont Park. He was also the Curator of the 1981 "Artists in Georgia" exhibition,
the first time that this annual exhibit was held outside the High Museum of Atlanta.
He has served as President and board member of the Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum
and has been co-chairman of the LaGrange National Art Competition for twenty- one
years. He has served on committees for the Georgia Council of the Arts, as a board
member of the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries, and as a juror for
the 1987 Southeastern Photography Grants awarded by the National Endowment for
the Arts. In 1995, in advance of the 1996 Olympic Games, Mr. Lawrence served on
the advisory panel to select sculpture for the Centennial Olympic park in Atlanta.
He also served on the grants panel for institutions and artist's projects for the
Bureau of Cultural Affairs for the city of Atlanta. He was a participant at the
Maine Photographic Workshop with George Tice and studied at the Ansel Adams Workshop
in Carmel, California. In the summer of 1984 he was an artist-in-residence with
the University of Georgia's Studies Abroad Program in Cortona, Italy. A two person
exhibition of his photographs from Cortona and the watercolors by Lamar Dodd was
presented in several galleries throughout the Southeast during the 1995-96 period
including Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi and at the D.D.Patty Museum in
Columbus, Mississippi. He returned to Cortona to teach photography for the University
of Georgia during the spring session of 1994 and again for the Maymester in 1999.
An exhibit of his photographs of Italy opened in 1995 at the Atlanta Financial
Center, curated by Barkin-Leeds, Ltd. In the spring of 1998, his work was shown
at the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Georgia in a traveling exhibition, Artists
in the Liberal Arts Tradition. In the fall of 1998, an exhibition of recent photographs
from Greece and Italy was held at the Piedmont College Art Gallery and at the Cabaniss
Fine Arts Center in Birmingham, Alabama. In a collaboration with the painter, Basilios
Poulos, he exhibited photographs in an exhibition, From Karies, a Greek Village,
of three summers of photographic work in Greece. In the summer of 2000, he was
a guest professor of photography with the State University of West Georgia's Studies
Abroad program in Normandy, France. In 2001, he exhibited photographs of the Chateaux's
of the Marquis de LaFayette and landscapes of Normandy during a festival celebration
of the French Connection in LaGrange, Georgia. In the fall of 2004, he returned
to Cortona, Italy to conduct a photographic workshop for the Studies Abroad Program
of the University of Georgia.
His work has been published in journals including Brown's Guide to Georgia, The
Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Interior Design, and Reader's Digest. His photographs
were used to illustrate a book by the writer Michael Pearson on literary America,
Imagined Places. A book of his photographs of William Faulkner's home, Faulkner's
Rowan Oak, with a text by Jackson, Mississippi Attorney Daniel Hise was published
in 1994 by the University of Mississippi Press. An exhibition of these photographs
was first presented at the Southside Gallery of Oxford, Mississippi during the
1995 Faulkner Literary Festival, then traveling to Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee
in 1995 and to Austin College, Sherman, Texas in 1998. A book of his photographs
of the architecture of Troup County, Travels in Troup County , was published by
the Troup County Archives and an exhibition of these photographs opened in 1996.
In 1999, he produced photographs for a book of the murals and paintings of the
Mississippi artist Walter Anderson , Walls of Light, published by the University
of Mississippi Press. Also in 1999, his photographs of Northern Ireland were exhibited
and used to illustrate a book devoted to the Sister City relationship of LaGrange,
Georgia and Craigavon, Northern Ireland. In June of 2001, to coincide with his
fortieth high school reunion, an exhibition of his photographs of Italy, Greece
and Mississippi were displayed at the Wetherby House Gallery in Greenville, Mississippi,
sponsored by the Greenville Arts Council. In the fall of 2002 he organized an exhibit
of thirty years of American photographers who have taught with the University of
Georgia's Studies Abroad Program in Italy. This exhibit, In Italy, traveled to
venues in Athens, Statesboro and to the Atlanta Financial Center.
In 2002 Mr. Lawrence was inducted into the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters
from which he received the 2002 Award in Photography. He is currently working towards
a forty year retrospective of his photographs to open in an exhibition in the spring
of 2005 and producing photographs for a book to be published celebrating the 175th
anniversary of LaGrange College.
John D. Lawrence
Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Art & Design;
Director, Lamar Dodd Art Center
jlawrence@lagrange.eduPhone: 706-880-8770
Fax: 706-880-8007