IS LOWRY A MODERN DAY JEROME BOSCH?


"Looking at Lowry "(1887-1976) That's what the exhibition was called .We were to see it at the Tate Britain in London. Pierrette had pointed out some of his work to me, but I knew nothing other than the artist had depicted the industrial revolution in the UK with accuracy. He was also known for his "stick people" and I could add "stick dogs"! If he was a painter of "modern life", the period recalls that of the impressionists but that period in Europe was, as far as painting goes, much more serene. Lowry was obsessed by crowds and that was probably unfamiliar in painting of that period.


Going to the Match 1953
The football match

A sky full of black smoke belching out of industrial chimneys,


Wigan 1925

A manufacturing town 1922


Strangely enough, he was better known in France between 1928 and 1933 as his work was presented in the autumn Salons and critics were good. I guess his work reminded the French critics of artists they knew such as Pissaro, Seurat or Utrillo. I found it difficult to believe that his "Bandstand Peel Park" in 1928 was influenced by Seurat's "Sunday in the Park at the Ile de Jatte" .......


Bandstand Peel Park 1928



A Lancashire village

He was a painter of the "working class" "where there's a quarrel there's always a crowd" he said

Poverty loomed large during the economic depression and it may still today with our own economic crisis, but I am very greatful I did not have to live in the previous conditions.  His industrial paintings are dark with dots of red which makes everything come into perspective.


Coming home from the mill 1928

The Lake 1937
People standing about 1935
His happier street scenes seemed to be more colourful and here there was some hope for a brighter future. In a funny kind of way, I would call him a modern Jerome Bosch All these tiny people and crowds. Bosch though does not seem to be reptitive. Lowry is. Looking at the catalogue at home in Paris I became confused between paintings. How I seen this one? Or another?



Next I will go to see "Australia" at the Royal Academy. I doubt if I will know many of the modern or contemporary artists. We shall see.

Commentaires

Michael Keane a dit…
This is the first time I've come across L S Lowry. Most impressive. Reminds me a little of Australia's John Brack. Certainly agree that his work is more like Hieronymus Bosch than Georges Seurat. I note Lowry has the record for declining royal favours having refused OBE, CBE, knighthood, and Companion of Honour.
29/9/13 09:36
Lo a dit…
I wish I had gone with you to see that one but the entrance fee (£16.50) really put me off. I came across his work many times while living in the UK. He was from Salford I think, near Manchester, where I lived for a year.
30/9/13 23:26
Enregistrer un commentaire

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

CONFLICTS AND ENCOUNTERS OF MULTIPLE HISTORIES

Image
Over the years, I have gone on discovering Wifredo Lam. He has been mentioned in different Blog chapters but always within permanent collections. I have to admit today that in the early years, I took one of his paintings for a Picasso….and seeing certain paintings of his today, it didn’t really surprise me. Especially as I learnt that he knew Picasso…This though was a retrospective of his work at the Beaubourg. Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) was a precursor of a cross-cultural style of painting, infusing Western modernism with African and Caribbean symbolism. He must have been one of the very rare artists who was in contact with all the movements of his time …and all those that I follow. Cubism, surrealism, CoBrA…but he never lost sight of the world around him and took on the struggle to paint the drama of his own country, Cuba. The above photo plunges us at once into the exhibition. Was he an attractive man? I think there are later photos which make him look less brutal….but in my book,
Lire la suite

MY BELOVED PICASSO -I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS -

Image
After 25 years as a museum, it was time to renovate the Picasso site. The « Hotel » as we call it, has quite a history. It is probably, as Bruno Foucart wrote in 1985,  (he is an art historian of 19th century architecture) “the grandest, most extraordinary, if not the most extravagant, of the Parisian houses of the 17th century”. Hotel Salé The Main stair case Another coming down "Picasso" would have liked these lights The building has seen many occupants come and go over the centuries. However, paradoxically, before the place was entrusted to the museum, it was rarely “inhabited”, but instead leased out to various private individuals, prestigious hosts and institutions. And so it became the Picasso museum. The renovations began in 2009 and quite obviously went well over budget and should have opened before the holidays started this year. The political arguments too had to be contended with not to mention the changes in Directors and the big question bei
Lire la suite

THE CHOICE OF ONE OF THE RICHEST WOMEN IN THE WORLD

Image
The exhibition season is very full between January and the French holiday period. I make less and less effort to go and see the « block-busters » and there are some museums which are not easy to get around. The Jacquemart André is one of them. The rooms are so small and when a couple of groups move in, it is virtually impossible to see a picture or move at all. Still I was interested to go and see the Alicia Koplowitz collection. Now I come to think of it, there have been quite a few private collections shown to the public since the end of last year.  Naturally I knew nothing about this woman.  Alicia Koplowitz is very well known in her home country, Spain. Thanks to her company, the Capital Omega Group  a comprehensive financial services company , she has become an important collect er Alicia is is a Spanish business magnate. When her father died, she and her sister inherited Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (CYCSA), a company founded by her father. She  sold her part of the comp
Lire la suite