Self portrait

Adrian Lawlor, critic and artist, came to Australia from his native England at the age of about twenty. After serving in the AIF during the First World War he settled in Warrandyte and began to write for the Bulletin and other publications. During the 1930s, he studied at George Bell's Bourke Street school and was a frequent visitor to Bell's studio; over that decade he held eight exhibitions in Melbourne and became an office-bearer in Bell's Contemporary Artists Group. Along with Sidney Nolan, Lawlor was singled out by Bell as an artist who 'dared to think for [himself]'. In 1939, more than 200 of his paintings were destroyed in a fire at his Warrandyte home. Subsequently, he established his reputation as a critic in print and on the wireless, over which he broadcast his opinions on art from 1936 to 1951. Following the death of his wife and the failure of his novel, The Horned Capon (1949) Lawlor went into sad decline. Although fewer than sixty of his paintings are known to have survived, he is represented in the National Gallery of Australia and several state and regional galleries.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
© Estate of Adrian Lawlor