Dorian Gray inspires both performing and visual art!
Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray, Wed 21 - Sat 24 October 2009
The Sea: LS Lowry & Maggi Hambling exhibition, Sat 17 October 2009 - Sun 31 January 2010
Visitors to The Lowry can enjoy Dorian Gray in the theatres as well as dramatic new work in the galleries by Maggi Hambling, who was inspired by this gothic masterpiece.
Master storyteller and choreographer Matthew Bourne transforms Oscar Wilde’s gothic fable into a darkly seductive dance event at The Lowry this month. Set in the image-obsessed worlds of contemporary art and politics, this black fairy tale tells the story of an exceptionally alluring young man who makes a pact with the devil.
Amongst London's beautiful people, Dorian Gray is the "It Boy" - an icon of beauty and truth in an increasingly ugly world. The destructive power of beauty, the blind pursuit of pleasure and the darkness and corruption that lie beneath the charming façade, the themes behind Wilde’s cautionary tale, have never been more timely.
Dorian Gray follows the phenomenal success of New Adventures’ productions of Matthew Bourne’s work, all of which have appeared at The Lowry, including Edward Scissorhands, The Car Man, Nutcracker! and Swan Lake. Dorian Gray reunites the team that created the double Olivier award-winning hit Play Without Words: designer Lez Brother, composer Terry Davies and lighting designer, Paul Constable.
Maggi Hambling, one of Britain's most distinguished contemporary artists, asked for the complete works of Oscar Wilde for her 12th birthday present. Dorian Gray was the first novel she ever read and was the book that changed her.
The Sea, a major exhibition at The Lowry (Sat 17 October 2009 – Sun 31January), displays some of Maggi’s extremely powerful paintings of the North Sea alongside a selection of Lowry's own sea paintings and drawings. Maggi’s work includes previously unseen large scale works and a new sculpture in bronze.
Maggi comments, “As a child, I would walk a short way into the sea, stand still and talk to it. Now I listen. The huge power is awe-inspiring and the North Sea, often like a raging beast, is fast consuming the land. As I get older, I identify with the shifting shingle, the sea, like time, enforcing an inevitable erosion.”
Michael Simpson, The Lowry’s Head of Visual Arts & Engagement, comments: “Both artists share a profound relationship with the sea and a deep commitment to painting the ocean. The sea absorbed and thrilled Lowry. For him the turbulence of the sea represented the battle of life. In contrast, Hambling’s work often pitches the viewer into the middle of churning, turbulent seas. Both Lowry’s and Hambling’s sea paintings pack a tremendous punch, in dramatically different ways.”
Maggi Hambling observes, “The surprise of Lowry’s sea-paintings is that they are unpeopled. He achieves a stark clarity which speaks directly to us. He can create the undercurrents as if by magic, with great economy of mark and minimal gesture. The results are hypnotic and contemporary. His paintings are in complete contrast to my recent work with the sea. Early each morning I draw the sea, much as a pianist practices scales, or a footballer limbers up. Back in the studio, in oil paint on canvas, I try to make the waves rise in their curves of the moon, become almost solid for a second, then crash, shatter and dissolve. The sound and speed of their action is what I’m trying to paint. For Lowry it is the quiet calm.”
The exhibition will be accompanied by a specially commissioned new publication featuring words and images by Maggi Hambling.
The Lowry Centre Trust is a not-for-profit charitable organisation and registered charity (no. 1053962). All income supports our world-class Theatres and Galleries programme, the care and display of the LS Lowry Collection and our life-changing Community and Education work.
Posted on Monday, 05 October 2009 under Press Theatre Press Galleries Press