THE LOWRY GALLERIES PRESS PACK 2005
Three exhibitions in The Lowry‘s galleries programme celebrate SeaBritain 2005 - the year of the sea – starting with Cornish coastlines in Shades of British Impressionism: Lamorna Birch & his circle, followed by LS Lowry’s little known seascapes in Lowry and the Sea and culminating in stunning photography from the National Trust in The Coast Exposed.
The Coast Exposed also forms part of The Lowry’s programme of photography, which is particularly strong this year, starting with Salford Snapshot and the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize. Showing over the Summer, Nightfall reveals the hidden world of wildlife around The Lowry, alongside a 40-year retrospective of Jane Bown’s Rock & Pop portraits.
Visitors to The Lowry, located on Greater Manchester’s Waterfront, can also take a dip into contemporary drawing with the Jerwood Drawing Prize and observe LS Lowry’s visual obsessions in the fascinating exhibition Double Vision.
Specially commissioned to celebrate The Lowry’s 5th birthday in April, Brass Art (artists Chara Lewis, Anneke Pettican & Kristin Mojsiewicz) are filling the Deck with light and sound, taking Salford landscape as their inspiration. They have produced Phantasmagoria, a rotating, panoramic video installation of Salford’s skyline.
The Lowry has also commissioned internationally renowned event creators Whalley Range All Stars to animate the building The result is the outside flies into The Lowry with a flock of fascinating animatronic birds which are unique, intriguing, quirky and fun.
2005 EXHIBITION SUMMARY
L S Lowry: Double Vision
Throughout 2005
Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize
1 Mar - 17 Apr
Shades of British Impressionism: Lamorna Birch & his circle
12 Mar – 3 Jul
The Jerwood Drawing Prize
23 Apr – 26 Jun
Phantasmagoria: An installation by Brass Art
28 Apr - 26 Jun
Lowry and the Sea
16 July – 30 October
Nightfall
9 Jul – 23 October
Rock: A Retrospective of Jane Bown’s Rock and Pop portraits
2 Jul – 18 Sep
The Coast Exposed
(National Trust & Magnum photography)
24 Sep – 8 Jan 2006
White
12 Nov 05 – 16 Apr 06
Double Vision
Throughout 2005
Exhibition created by The Lowry
The Lowry continues to present LS Lowry’s work in different ways. The latest exhibition of his work, Double Vision, takes an unusual shape. Pictures are displayed in pairs, inviting visitors to spot the visual obsessions and recurring themes to which Lowry constantly returned throughout his career. Double Vision also pairs Lowry’s work together with that of other artists – sometimes working during the same period as him, sometimes working years apart - who shared his choice of subject matter. These comparisons show us that, far from being an eccentric, artistic loner, Lowry is firmly part of 20th century British art.
Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize
1 March - 17 April
Touring Exhibition – London & Salford only
The entries for this major international photographic prize – now in its second year - come to The Lowry straight from showing at the National Portrait Gallery in London. From just under 8,000 images submitted for the 2004 prize, the judges selected around sixty for inclusion in the final exhibition. The images that made it through to the exhibition are an eclectic mix, including portraits of celebrities such as fashion designer Matthew Williamson and PM Tony Blair, alongside images of waitresses and carnival showgirls. German photographer Jens Lucking was awarded the first prize for his shot, Tokyo. The competition was open to amateurs and professionals of all ages, who were encouraged to interpret ‘portrait’ in its widest sense, of ‘photography’ concerned with portraying people with emphasis on their identity as individuals. The judging panel included photographer Terry O’Neill, Terence Pepper and Sandy Nairne of NPG and Sarah Kent, art critic of Time Out.
Exhibition organised by the National Portrait Gallery, London
Shades of British Impressionism: Lamorna Birch and his circle
12 March – 3 July
Touring Exhibition
This exhibition celebrates the life and friendships of one of the best-known and most prolific British painters of the twentieth century (Samuel John Lamorna Birch 1869-1955), and provides a glorious view of British impressionism spanning fifty years. He cultivated friendships with the leading painters of his day (whose work is represented in this exhibition) and began exhibiting at the Royal Academy from an early age. Like LS Lowry, Birch grew up in Manchester but chose to settle in picturesque Cornwall, painting local scenes that captured fleeting effects of light and shade. Founder of the Lamorna colony of artists and writers in Cornwall, his circle of friends included Munnings, Harold and Laura Knight, Harold Harvey, Stanhope and Elizabeth Forbes. Together, they helped to change the face of British art, emphasizing colour and light. His career path is an interesting counterpoint to that of the slightly younger LS Lowry who chose to stay in the North West and shunned fashionable art circles. This exhibition not only contains ravishing examples of Birch’s Impressionism but also throws light on the choices available to artists of that time.
A touring exhibition organised by Warrington Museum and Art Gallery
The Jerwood Drawing Prize
23 April – 26 June
Touring Exhibition
The Lowry aims to show examples of excellent drawing by artists today, to draw attention to Lowry’s fine draughtsmanship. The Jerwood Foundation has run this competition for almost 10 years and the exhibition of prizewinners and selected entries is a great opportunity to survey the variety and standard of current drawing practice. Visitors can also nominate their own ‘winner’ after seeing the show!
Phantasmagoria
An installation by Brass Art
28 April - 26 June
Exhibition created by The Lowry
Specially commissioned to celebrate The Lowry’s 5th birthday, Brass Art (artists Chara Lewis, Anneke Pettican & Kristin Mojsiewicz) are filling the Deck with light and sound, taking Salford landscape as their inspiration. They have produced a rotating, panoramic video installation of Salford’s skyline. Superimposed against this backdrop is a series of real and illusory figures performing familiar and strange actions. A newly commissioned sound track, from Matt Wand using the sound of a glass armonica, completes the experience. The installation is based on the late 19th century fascination with Phantasmagoria: spectacular shows using slides and sound. Another fantastical landscape stretches across the gallery walls, incorporating the view Lowry drew from the top floor of Salford Technical College. Populating this landscape are copper silhouettes, animated by light.
Phantasmagoria is part of the Spotlight Programme supported by The Arts Council England, North West.
Nightfall
9 July –23 October
Exhibition created by The Lowry
North West artist Rebecca Chesney is in the process of creating extraordinary new work for a unique exhibition revealing the secrets of the natural landscape surrounding The Lowry. Armed with lights, night vision cameras and CCTV, Rebecca has spent the last year researching and documenting the nocturnal wildlife found around The Lowry. She is interested in how nature readapts to new situations and has discovered a hidden world of animals and insects in a seemingly urban environment. She will re-create the nocturnal environment in the Galleries with a dark ‘tunnel like’ space and her installation will include both photography and film footage. Rebecca has exhibited as far afield as Germany and Boston, USA as well as around the North from Preston and Lancaster to County Durham. Her sculpture residencies include The Parc du Pilat, France, the Vermont Studio Center, USA and The Lake, Vyrnwy Sculpture Trail, Powys in Wales. More recently she has been artist in residence at Kill Co. Kerry, Ireland and in 2000 was Year of the Artist Residency at Killhope Lead Mining Centre, Co. Durham. Her work has also formed part of various group shows including the 2004 Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, Young International Artists, Rialto, Rome, Italy, 2003 and Incognito, Dukes Theatre, Lancaster, UK in 2001.
Lowry and the Sea
16 July – 30 October In the public imagination, LS Lowry is associated with land-locked Salford. However, he spent much of his time visiting – and painting – coastlines around Britain. This exhibition celebrates Lowry’s interest in the sea, from views of the holiday resorts he visited as a young man to the contemplative, peaceful seascapes of his old age
Rock: A Retrospective of Jane Bown’s Rock and Pop portraits (1963 – 2003)
2 Jul – 18 Sep
London and Salford Spanning five decades of musical history, these images by legendary Observer photographer Jane Bown range from the sixties to the present day including, the Beatles, Keith Richards, Joan Baez, Donovan, Cher, Morrissey, Sinead O' Connor, Boy George, Bjork, Jarvis Cocker and PJ Harvey. The exhibition also features a rarely seen portrait of John Lennon. Her unerring eye and talent for revealing the personalities of her sitters have won her tremendous critical acclaim. Her faces are expressive, and her down-to-earth photographic methods are quite in contrast to those of many editorial shooters. Jane’s creed is short and sweet: “I try not to impose myself; I look for the essence; I don’t use props. I love people, and I think they pick up on that. They can be at ease with themselves and the camera. I feel that portrait photographs are joint creations.” This exhibition is curated by The Guardian and in association with The Observer.
The Lowry will also commission Jane Bown to take a portrait photograph of a renowned musician (more details to be announced).
The Coast Exposed
24 September 2005 – 8 January 2006
Touring photography Exhibition (only to Belfast, London, Cornwall & Salford)
The National Trust Photographic Library has created this exhibition in collaboration with Magnum photos to showcase the natural wonders of the coast, celebrating Britain’s coastline in The Year of the Sea. Remote rugged cliffs, flood damaged Boscastle, protected seabird colonies and family seaside fun; the beauty and diversity of the British coast; its wildlife and its relationship with those who live, work and enjoy what it offers are celebrated in this major photographic exhibition. Spectacular colour photographic coast landscapes from across England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been captured by the National Trust’s photographers Joe Cornish, Paul Wakefield and David Norton, some of the country’s best in this field of photography. Renowned for their insightful reportage photography, Magnum photographers Ian Berry, Stuart Franklin, David Hurn and Chris Steele-Perkins visited several National Trust coastal locations. Using black and white imagery in Magnum’s distinctive style, their photographs reflect the delicate interdependent relationships that coastal communities have with the sea. The Coast Exposed tours to the National Maritime Museum in London; the Waterfront in Belfast; Trelissick Garden in Cornwall and The Lowry in Salford.
White
12 November 2005 – 16 April 2006
The Lowry will be staging a major new exhibition called ‘White’, in which the colour white is the all-important component. Curated by Clive Adams (who previously teamed up with The Lowry on the award winning exhibition The Impossible View? – Museums & Heritage Award for the best UK temporary exhibition of 2003), this exhibition will use the dominant use of white in Lowry’s work as the starting point for a broad historical sweep of art which uses the colour white in quite different ways. L S Lowry became increasingly fond of whites and was attracted to the way that, over the years, flake white turned a ‘beautiful creamy grey-white’. In addition to key works from the L S Lowry collection, visitors will be given a fascinating look at how the colour white has been used for symbolic, representational and abstract purpose by artists over the last 400 years. Major loans will be included from national and regional collections. To coincide with the exhibition The Lowry will also be commissioning exciting new artwork by some of the region’s leading contemporary artists.
Posted on Friday, 18 March 2005 under Press Galleries Press