It is with great sadness that Hirschl & Adler Modern announces the death of artist Nancy Lawton on May 5, 2007, in Albany, N.Y.; she was 57 years old.

Lawton was born in Gilroy, Calif., studied art at California State University at San Jose, and received her MFA at the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston. Drawings were her milieu, with her medium of choice being graphite, and, beginning in 1985, silverpoint, an arcane technique developed in the Middle Ages that reached maturity in the Renaissance. In her most recent work, Lawton combined graphite and silverpoint in compositions with great tonal range and sensitivity of line.

In 1982, her drawings received an important imprimatur when she was introduced to Gene Baro, the influential curator of prints and drawings at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York. The next year, Baro organized a solo retrospective exhibition of Lawton’s graphite drawings at the museum, and purchased eight works for the museum’s permanent collection.

Today, Lawton’s drawings are part of the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum; The Art Institute of Chicago; the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, N.Y. Her drawings were regularly included in special exhibitions at the Arkansas Art Center; the Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, N.Y.; the Hunt Institute for Botanical Representation at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; and the National Academy of Design, New York.

Hirschl & Adler Modern has represented Ms Lawton since 2001. Earlier this year, her work was featured in a solo exhibition, “Nancy Lawton: Drawings in Graphite & Silver,” her second at Hirschl & Adler Modern.

Ms Lawton is survived by her husband, Dr Richard Enemark, headmaster of the Doane Stuart School in Albany; her two children, Faith and Forrest; her father, Edward Lawton of Santa Clara, Calif., and her sister, Carol Lawton of Fremont, Calif.

A memorial service will be held at a future date. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations in Nancy’s memory be made to the American Cancer Society or the Campaign for the Doane Stuart School.