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| LS Lowry: Leading artist of industrial Britain takes his place at the Tate | |
| (about 17 hours later) | |
| It will be a show for LS Lowry "believers but also for cynics," said Tate Britain's director, Penelope Curtis, as the institution prepared finally to open a major show devoted to an artist who was the pre-eminent painter of industrial Britain. | It will be a show for LS Lowry "believers but also for cynics," said Tate Britain's director, Penelope Curtis, as the institution prepared finally to open a major show devoted to an artist who was the pre-eminent painter of industrial Britain. |
| More than 90 works depicting working-class life by an artist often loved and derided in equal measure go on display at a gallery that has regularly been accused of ignoring him. The show – accompanied by merchandise such as Lowry coasters, placemats, trays and a £28 flat cap – opens to the public on Wednesday. | More than 90 works depicting working-class life by an artist often loved and derided in equal measure go on display at a gallery that has regularly been accused of ignoring him. The show – accompanied by merchandise such as Lowry coasters, placemats, trays and a £28 flat cap – opens to the public on Wednesday. |
| TJ Clark, who co-curated the show with Anne M Wagner, said Lowry deserved to be celebrated, not least as the only British painter to engage properly with industrialisation and working-class life. He said it was remarkable how little visual art record there was of industrialisation in a country that was the world's pioneer. | TJ Clark, who co-curated the show with Anne M Wagner, said Lowry deserved to be celebrated, not least as the only British painter to engage properly with industrialisation and working-class life. He said it was remarkable how little visual art record there was of industrialisation in a country that was the world's pioneer. |
| "The fascinating question is: why?" he said. "One answer is that it is a profoundly difficult subject. It's raw, it's grim, it's largely unknown to middle-class painters and it's ugly. | "The fascinating question is: why?" he said. "One answer is that it is a profoundly difficult subject. It's raw, it's grim, it's largely unknown to middle-class painters and it's ugly. |
| "The other part of the answer is tremendous cultural bias in England towards a kind of upper-class, country house, Eton and Oxbridge view of what the English experience is." | "The other part of the answer is tremendous cultural bias in England towards a kind of upper-class, country house, Eton and Oxbridge view of what the English experience is." |
| Which are good reasons for the Tate – lambasted by the actor Ian McKellen two years ago for rarely exhibiting the Lowrys it owns – to put on the show. Clark said: "How very peculiar it would be to have 20th century British art which completely evaded the reality of industry and the working class – and by and large it does." | Which are good reasons for the Tate – lambasted by the actor Ian McKellen two years ago for rarely exhibiting the Lowrys it owns – to put on the show. Clark said: "How very peculiar it would be to have 20th century British art which completely evaded the reality of industry and the working class – and by and large it does." |
| The co-curator said he and most people took Lowry for granted. He recalled looking at Lowrys hanging in Manchester and Salford and having a kind of epiphany. "I remember saying to myself, 'You know these are extremely good paintings.' They're just much more full of calculation and incident and improvisation than I'd ever realised. They are modern paintings in their own peculiar way." | The co-curator said he and most people took Lowry for granted. He recalled looking at Lowrys hanging in Manchester and Salford and having a kind of epiphany. "I remember saying to myself, 'You know these are extremely good paintings.' They're just much more full of calculation and incident and improvisation than I'd ever realised. They are modern paintings in their own peculiar way." |
| The show containsmany familiar, powerful and grey images of mills, workers and football matches, as well as works that show Lowry's comic side. Of particular note is the final room and the gathering together, for the first time, of five large panoramic paintings that Lowry made in the 1950s – a kind of memorial to industrial society as it was known. | The show containsmany familiar, powerful and grey images of mills, workers and football matches, as well as works that show Lowry's comic side. Of particular note is the final room and the gathering together, for the first time, of five large panoramic paintings that Lowry made in the 1950s – a kind of memorial to industrial society as it was known. |
| Curtis said the show gave Lowry fans the opportunity to see what they love about him, "But it gives people who have doubts about Lowry something really quite new, and I suppose, in a nutshell, that is to take Lowry seriously." | Curtis said the show gave Lowry fans the opportunity to see what they love about him, "But it gives people who have doubts about Lowry something really quite new, and I suppose, in a nutshell, that is to take Lowry seriously." |
| • Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life is at Tate Britain, 26 June-20 October. | • Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life is at Tate Britain, 26 June-20 October. |