Arts & Culture L. S. Lowry, Industrial Landscape 1955, Tate © Te Estate of L.S. Lowry
space in the slums. Lowry’s paint is often heavy and matter of fact, but it can also be light and painterly,” she adds. Te exhibition is also the first to explore
Lowry’s connections with French art of the later 19th century. It reveals what Lowry learned from the talented late French impressionist Adolphe Valette, who taught him in Manchester for many years, and demonstrates important parallels with the painters of modern life such as Vincent van Gogh, Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat and Maurice Utrillo. “He had many interesting connections to
France,” says Ms Little. “In the 1920s and ‘30s Lowry sent two pictures a year to the Paris Salon, and got noticed. It says something of Lowry’s ambition and engagement with the wider art world that he knew this was the place to show his work.” At this time Lowry
L.S.Lowry, Te Empty House 1934, Te Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent L. S. Lowry, Ancoats Hospital Outpatients’ Hall 1952, Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester
was exhibiting more frequently in Paris than in London. His absence from the capital has also been something that has been criticised since his death in 1976. Tis exhibition is in fact the first to be held by a public institution in London since then. “It’s true that Lowry has escaped the eye of the London art world for many years and it is always a frustration that there are more deserving exhibitions to be made,” says Little. “In fact, Tate has been thinking for a number of years about how it might make a Lowry exhibition. Lowry’s life and work is well documented but we wanted the show to reflect new scholarship in order to contribute fresh perspectives about his work. On that basis, Lowry is waiting to be re-discovered and I am looking forward to seeing how the show will be received.” Working alongside Helen Little to shed new light on Lowry’s Salford, Pendlebury and London landscapes are co-curators T.J. Clark and Anne M Wagner, emeritus professors of art history at the University of California. Ms Little says: “T.J. Clark and Anne Wagner
are distinguished art historians and working with them closely for the last two years has enabled me to look afresh not just at Lowry - an artist I thought I knew - but about approaches to art and its history more generally. I hope people will take away from this exhibition the strength of Lowry’s paintings and a sense of his place and context in British art as the pre- eminent painter of the industrial city.”
Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life runs daily until 20th October 2013 at Tate Britain. For information call 020 7887 8888 or visit
tate.org.uk.
49
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68