In Manchester Art Gallery, I expected that there would be some paintings by L.S.Lowry and indeed I was right. Above is a typical Lowry canvas painted in 1928. It's "Coming Home from the Mill" and it exemplifies the artist's lifelong interest in the lives of ordinary working people. They trudge around like matchstalk figures - small in the industrial landscape they inhabit.
This one is titled "Laying the Foundation Stone". Painted in 1936 it depicts the pomp and ceremony of a municipal event as a tiresome town councillor addresses his audience. He is beginning the process of building a new school. Lowry was rather repulsed by such events.
In this picture, "Street Sceme With Figures" (1949), a hurrying man turns to look at the artist. His back is bent and there is something quite clownish about his face. Behind him factories belch smoke. In the grand scheme of things, his existence is of little importance even though he has places to go, people to see.
This is a picture of Piccadilly Gardens in the heart of Manchester. It was commissioned and completed in 1954. The gardens stand on the site of the old Manchester Royal Infirmary with The Coronation Fountain in the centre - created to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne.
And here is the artist himself, Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887 - 1976). Like him or loathe him, he certainly made his mark. I have referred to him and his artistry several times before in this blog...
Mr Lowry went to Sunderland and painted the North Sea or German Ocean
ReplyDeleteas it was once named. He stayed at The Seaburn, an Art Deco 42 bed hotel.
No people now. Just Kipling's Old Grey Widow Maker. In the wind and the rain.
One of these North Sea pictures would grace my bare walls across from a bold
Cy Twombly and a frenetic Helen Frankenthaler and a haunting Howard Hodgkin
and a little ballerina by Degas drawn in brown conte crayon and pink chalk.
Howard Hodgkin : Too much is enough.
DeleteThe Guardian online. John-Paul Stonard. 8 October 2016.
The luscious, edible colours of his prints.
YouTube documentaries on this English painter with a very
un-English palette, draw us into his mysterious enchanting world.
He visited India almost every year just to look.
Of the two artists you mention here, I prefer the work of John-Paul Stonard but neither artist made their mark like Lowry.
DeleteThe paintings are quite interesting, easy to look at and study, though not something I would hang on my walls.
ReplyDeleteEven it had been sold for £7.8 million?
DeleteYes, I remember you mentioning Lowry and showing his work on your blog several times. He was an artist after my own heart. That hurrying man is done so well - captured in that brief moment when he looks round, his expression as if he's thinking "What?! Can't you see I am in a hurry?". His pale face, constrasting with the red scarf and black suit, makes him look decidedly unhealthy. Not rare in that time and place, I guess.
ReplyDeleteWell observed Meike!
DeleteI like his artwork, and I wonder why he might be loathed?
ReplyDeleteLoathed because he depicted working people and the establishment tends not to look that way.
DeleteI think the jaunty hat on the hurrying man reminds me of Charlie Chaplin. There is a film about Lowrie on You Tube, his mother thought his painting all nonsense.
ReplyDeleteThe relationship with his mother was powerful but not always cheery.
DeleteOne of my great-aunts told of working in the mills as a very young girl. The quote I remember was "walk to work, and run away from it." She was the last one in when the whistle sounded, and the first one out at the end of the shift. She went on from there to be a housemade, then came to the USA before WWII, and was housekeeper for the Firestone family. Thank you for reminding me of Little Aunt Edith.
ReplyDeleteShe must have had a hard life but varied too. What a brave thing to do - crossing that Atlantic for a new life. I guess she met Fred and Wilma Firestone!
DeleteInteresting work, a bit simple, but something to catch the ey.
ReplyDeleteA very original style but partly encouraged by his French art teacher when he was at art school.
DeleteInteresting how he uses such a narrow palette of colors. Even his painting of the gardens is largely gray!
ReplyDeleteYou are right. There's never much brightness in his paintings.
DeleteThere was an episode of "Fake or Fortune" about a suspected L.S.Lowry painting but I can't remember if it was proved authentic or not.
ReplyDeleteHe was very productive for a lot of years - producing countless canvases.
DeleteI like his paintings a great deal.
ReplyDeleteWe have one of his paintings (a print) in our hallway. I wish it was the original!
DeleteI like the paintings.
ReplyDeleteGood. His work speaks for ordinary people.
DeleteI commented on my love of Lowry and his bird's eye scenes. Is it in spam?
ReplyDeleteSorry Boud. I have not seen the earlier comment but I am glad that you also love Lowry's work.
DeleteI love his work. He is the inspiration of our very own Joe Scarborough who's work i also admire (I have a signed print of his over my fireplace).
ReplyDelete