The Impossible View
Major Exhibition Opening Next Week
The Impossible View?
19 Jul 2003 - 11 Jan 2004
Works by many of Britain's leading collections, including the Tate, the National Gallery, the British Museum, the Royal Collection and the V&A, are travelling to Salford for The Impossible View? exhibition at The Lowry.
The exhibition, which includes works from over 450 years of art from across the globe - from Brueghel to Canaletto, Hiroshige to Turner and Rubens to Hockney - opens at The Lowry on July 19, and continues until January 2004. The Impossible View? examines how artists present an image as if painted from an imaginary high spot, giving a broader panorama than is possible in reality. The starting point is The Lowry's own unrivalled collection of industrial landscapes from an imaginary high viewpoint and other works by L S Lowry.
Clive Adams, guest curator for The Impossible View? commented: " 'Impossible' views, for instance a high or wide viewpoint, have been adopted in different cultures, at different times and for different reasons. Their special qualities capture everything from momentous events, topographical prospects to the disasters of war but they can also gives us insights - as Lowry himself does - into the mind of the artist and the human condition."
A number of specific themes will be explored. These will include:
· Paintings for special occasions, such as Canaletto's "London: Westminster Bridge from the North on Lord Mayor's Day" (1746)
· Contemporary photographic panoramas, including works by Andreas Gursky and a panoramic image of a crater on the surface of the moon taken on the Apollo 15 mission
· Everyday activities of town and country, including several of Hiroshige's "Places in Edo" series of the 1830s, and Pieter Brueghel the elder's engraving "Landscape with Rabbit Hunters"
· Estate portraiture, including Turner's "Petworth Park" · Military events, including early photographic images of the Crimean War by Roger Fenton, and Wenceslaus Hollar's "Tangiers seen from Peterborough Tower" (1669)
· Scenes of destruction, including photographs of San Francisco before and after the "Great Fire" of the 1860s, and images of World War I by Christopher Nevinson ("The Road from Arras to Bapaume", 1917)
· Religious views, including Maerten van Heemskerk's "Christ on the Sea of Tiberias" (1567) and Giovanni Paolo Cimerlini's "Landscape with St Christopher" (1568)
· Expanded landscape views, including Thomas Moran's "Nearing Camp, Evening on the Upper Colorado River" (1882) and Ruisdael's "An Extensive Landscape with Ruins" (1665-70), and one of David Hockneys large "Grand Canyon" works
· Urban topographical aspects, including Auerbach's "Primrose Hill, Summer Sunshine" (1964), early photographs of Nagasaki, and Gino Severini's "The Boulevard" (1910-11)
· Panoramas of the Lake District, Edinburgh and London · Industrial landscapes, including Matthias Read's bird's eye view of Whitehaven (18th Century) and a selection of L S Lowry's industrial panoramas
· Scenes of social activity, including WP Frith's "Ramsgate Sands" from the Royal Collection, and beach scenes by L S Lowry
This exhibition is sponsored by Turley Associates. Rob Turley, Chairman of Turley Associates comments: The Impossible View? is an intriguing look at landscapes, townscapes and cityscapes throughout the ages. As a company at the heart of plans to develop towns and cities of the future we understand and see the 'big picture' when it comes to making places. Our focus is on the art of 'the possible' using imagination and creativity, and the artists on view cleverly provoke us to do that. We are pleased to have the opportunity to sponsor this fantastic and unique collection."
A fully illustrated catalogue will be available to accompany the exhibition. Further information about The Galleries The Lowry offers a programme of modern and contemporary art of diversity and appeal. The Lowry collection itself is presented in a dynamic way, with displays changing regularly. Temporary exhibitions often complement the collections, through themed exhibitions about the urban or industrial environment, empty landscapes, or contemporaries of L S Lowry.
Admission to the Galleries is free. On arrival you will need an admission ticket from the Galleries Desk. We encourage donations to support the Galleries and the care of the L S Lowry Collection.
Gallery Opening times: Sun-Wed 11am-5pm, Thurs-Fri 11am-7.30pm, Sat 10am-7.30pm NB The Gallery opening times will change this Autumn by staying open late whenever there is a theatre event, to enable visitors to always enjoy the complete Lowry experience. Gallery Opening Times from Sep '03: Galleries open everyday 11am - 5pm and will stay open late until the theatre performance starts whenever there is a show in the theatres.
Posted on Thursday, 10 July 2003 under Press Galleries Press