Thomas Lawson, artist, writer, magazine editor, and long-term faculty in the School of Art at CalArts has won a 2024 Rabkin Prize with its unrestricted gift of $50,000. The prize, which celebrates the creative and intellectual contributions of arts writers, is the central initiative of the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation. The artist-endowed foundation based in Portland, Maine, announced the eight winners on Wednesday, Sept. 5.
Lawson, who served as dean of the School of Art from 1991 to 2022, was honored alongside Greg Allen, of greg.org; Holland Cotter, chief art critic for The New York Times; Robin Givhan, senior critic-at-large for The Washington Post; Siddhartha Mitter, a freelance writer and critic; Cassie Packard, a writer, editor at Frieze, and author of Art Rules; TK Smith, a cultural historian and curator of the Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta; and Emily Watlington, a writer and senior editor at Art in America.
Arts professionals from around the country provided a list of nominees with an independent jury selecting the winners.This year’s jury included Dennis Lim, artistic director of the New York Film Festival; rashid shabazz, executive director of Critical Minded; and Alexandra Grant, a Los Angeles- and Berlin-based artist.
In an email, the foundation shared what the jury wrote about Lawson’s work:
“Thomas Lawson’s gift as a critic and arts writer is reflected in not only the longevity of his career and work but also his own practices as artist and arts educator,” our jury commented. “His writing is well informed and reflective and reads as an artist critic who understands the materials being worked with and the context in which the work is being created. No words are lost in the reviews and profiles he writes. Each sentence comes to life and transports you inside the gallery or studio or close to the person or place he is writing about. As a writer, Lawson is clear and precise though the writing is full. He is a joy to read for those looking for deeper context, meaning and reflection and hoping for analysis that sometimes can be lost in shorter reviews and art criticism.”
In addition to his art practice and teaching, Lawson’s writings and essays have appeared in Artforum, Art in America, Flash Art, Frieze, and October, as well as in numerous exhibition catalogs for museums worldwide.
He also served as the US editor of Afterall, an international art journal then co-published by the School of Art and Central Saint Martins College of Art, London from 2002 until 2009. In 2010 he launched East of Borneo, an online journal and archive dedicated to art and its history from a Southern California perspective.
