{"id":91446,"date":"2025-03-26T17:31:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T17:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.modernartoxford.org.uk\/cms\/?p=91446"},"modified":"2025-03-30T16:21:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T15:21:23","slug":"julie-lawson-conversations-between-ourselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.modernartoxford.org.uk\/cms\/julie-lawson-conversations-between-ourselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Julie Lawson: Conversations Between Ourselves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Julie Lawson was one of nine women Barbara Steveni included in her project Conversations Between Ourselves<\/em>. In this series of interviews, Steveni highlighted the often unacknowledged work of women supporting and administrating the Artist Placement Group and later O+I. Here, Lawson’s close friend Jane England reflects on her life. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Julie Lawson (1920-2020) had a long and fascinating life and a gift for connecting people, recognizing talent, and \u201cmaking things happen\u201d. Through her various roles at London\u2019s Institute of Contemporary Art from the 1940s to 1970s, and her involvement with The Elephant Trust and AICA UK, she made and maintained friendships with artists and curators around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie was born in Indonesia in 1920 as Maria Juliana Thomas. Her mother was Chinese and she was of Armenian descent on her father\u2019s side. The family lived in a rural part of Java and Julie, already nicknamed \u2018Tommy\u2019, was sent away to board at a convent school run by Dutch nuns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie married a Dutch pilot who was killed in 1943 while serving with the Allied forces in the war. She rarely talked of the deprivation and brutal treatment she suffered during her internment\u00a0 in a camp in Java during the Japanese occupation from 1943 until September 1945. She became a \u2018displaced person\u2019 after being evacuated to Singapore early in 1946, and later that year friends assisted her to get a temporary visa to the UK and passage to England on a troopship. In 1948, by then living in London, she met a Scottish ex-RAF pilot, Alastair Lawson, and they married in October 1949 – and were together until his death in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 1948, Julie joined London\u2019s Institute of Contemporary Arts in Dover Street, Mayfair. Ewan Phillips, (the first Director of the then newly formed ICA) was looking for an assistant, and Julie got the job after a mutual friend suggested she should apply to work at this new organization dealing with the arts. Julie said later that her ability to speak several languages helped her be chosen for the position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n