Lowry and the Sea
16 July – 30 October
Special exhibition to celebrate SeaBritain 2005
IAN MCKELLEN, 2004
"Once you have seen a Lowry painting of the sea, you will then never see the sea again in the same way"
The sea comes to Salford when The Lowry celebrates SeaBritain 2005 - the year of the sea – with a unique exhibition, the first LS Lowry show themed around the sea, including some loans never before shown at The Lowry.
Seascapes are perhaps the most surprising element of LS Lowry’s work for those familiar simply with his industrial scenes. The sea was an important metaphor for Lowry as Shelley Rohde, Lowry’s biographer, explains: “The sea absorbed and thrilled him. It was something he remembered, with a fascination bordering on obsession, all his life. He saw in the inexorable ebb and flow of the tides the same vain struggle for survival that possessed the people among whom he was to live and work. It was a theme to which he would return, and return again, all his life.”
LS Lowry himself said “It’s the battle of life – the turbulence of the sea – and life’s pretty turbulent, isn’t it? I am very fond of the sea; how wonderful it is, yet how terrible it is. But I often think…what if it suddenly changed its mind and didn’t turn the tide? And came straight on? If it didn’t stop and came on and on and on and on. That would be the end of it all. “
Lowry and the Sea will display around 50 paintings and drawings, drawn from the Salford Collection housed at The Lowry, as well as works borrowed from public and private sources. Pictures range from heavily populated beaches to ‘empty’ seascapes, by way of working docks and coastlines put to industrial use.
Lowry’s choice of seaside resort to paint captures a time when Manchester residents headed for destinations like Rhyl and Lytham St Annes, superseded in the 60s with the advent of overseas package holidays. But it is the North East seascapes of his later career that capture the imagination of visitors to The Lowry. He declared the inspiration of these paintings, consisting simply of sea and sky, to have been “boredom” but later, he translated this into loneliness. It may have been a strange combination of the two: friends testify to his habit of sitting for hours staring out to sea. The results are certainly strangely captivating. Shelley Rohde commented that “he painted seascapes of such power that to look at them is to risk drowning in the depth of their mystery.”
LS Lowry also confessed, to collector Monty Bloom, that he was often tempted to paint a mill chimney in the middle of an empty seascape: “But they would have accused me of being a Surrealist, wouldn’t’ they?” And he added, chuckling, “Salvador Lowry” – coupling Dali’s name with his own in a very typical example of his music hall humour.
To accompany this exhibition, The Lowry has organised Art Zone: Making Waves, a week-long workshop during Autumn half term (Mon 24 - Fri 28 October, 11am - 12.30pm). Artist Nicola Lynch will explore the ‘Lowry and the Sea’ exhibition and teach participants to create a swirling seascape using the exciting techniques of marbling and collage.
Advance booking is advised for this workshop which is most suitable for ages 5 – 11.
Box office 0870 787 5793/ www.thelowry.com
Lowry and the Sea is just one exhibition celebrating SeaBritain as The Coast Exposed, showing from 24 Sep – 8 Jan 2006 will showcase many natural wonders of the coast, with stunning photography from Magnum and the National Trust.
Posted on Friday, 08 July 2005 under Press Galleries Press