Jane Lawrence
| Jane Lawrence | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Jane Brotherton February 3, 1915 Bozeman, Montana |
| Died | August 5, 2005 (aged 90) New York City, New York |
| Occupation | Stage, film actress |
| Spouse(s) | Tony Smith |
| Children | Kiki Smith, Seton Smith, Beatrice (Bebe) Smith Robinson |
Jane Lawrence Smith (February 3, 1915 – August 5, 2005), born Jane Brotherton, was an American actress and opera singer who was part of the New York art scene beginning in the 1950s.
Jane Brotherton was born in Bozeman, Montana and grew up in Mt. Vernon, Washington. Her father was Lawrence Langham Brotherton, a founder of the Bozeman Canning Company.
In 1943 she, created the small role of Gertie in Oklahoma! on Broadway. The same year, she married Tony Smith, an architect who later achieved fame as a minimalist sculptor. Her close friend Tennessee Williams was best man at her wedding. The Smiths became the parents of three daughters, Kiki Smith, Seton Smith and Beatrice (Bebe) Smith Robinson (herself married to the painter and art critic Walter Robinson, before she died from AIDS).
In 1950 she traveled to Europe and began an opera career in Germany. The next year she sang the part of Elettra in the 1951 Salzburg Festival presentation of Idomeneo, conducted by Georg Solti.
Ms. Smith was one of the last survivors of the central circle of Abstract Expressionist artists and companions who came to the fore in New York in the 1940s and '50s. Her husband was close to Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman, and she was the subject of one of Pollock's late black-and-white paintings, No. 7 (1952), now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Two of her daughters, Kiki Smith and Seton Smith, are artists, adding to her prominence in the art world. After her husband's death, in 1980, she resumed her acting career, this time in avant-garde theater, and worked with the directors John Jesurun, Joan Jonas and Marianne Weems. She performed the lead role in the no wave opera XS: The Opera Opus (1984-6) that was created by composer Rhys Chatham and artist Joseph Nechvatal.
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