A new exhibition of work by LS Lowry will “bust a few myths” about the Mancunian artist, who the show’s co-curator says is still wrongly derided for being “naive and uncultured”.
Exhibition Details and Rare Painting
LS Lowry: the Theatre of Life features 140 paintings by the artist, who captured working-class life in the industrial north-west of England during the early and mid 20th century. The exhibition opens on 24 October at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes.
Included in the exhibition is the rarely seen 1932 painting A Football Match, which depicts a game between two unknown teams. It will be the first time the painting has been seen in public for nearly 85 years – the last time it was shown was at the Royal Academy a decade after it was painted.
Busting the Myths
Anthony Spira, director of MK Gallery, said: “What we’re hoping to do is actually to bust a few myths. He wasn’t just an industrial painter. He certainly wasn’t naive or isolated or self-taught; he spent many years at art college. He used to go to the opera, the theatre, the cinema. He collected art as well, with works by the pre-Raphaelites, Jacob Epstein and Lucien Freud. He was much more cultured and engaged than he’s given credit for.”
A Guardian review from 1948 described Lowry as “direct, unpretentious and refreshingly honest”, but the stripped-back nature of his paintings have led to his work being misinterpreted.
Lowry’s Broader Subject Matter
Lowry, a Manchester City fan, did paint his favourite team in action against Sheffield United in 1938, but it was unusual for him to depict a real-life event rather than a piece composed of several combined scenes. Spira noted: “It probably was an event that he witnessed. It’s likely an amateur game … most of his scenes are more about crowds than actual sports.”
Spira said that while works like Coming Out of School and The Pond are part of Lowry’s signature style, focusing solely on industrial scenes can lapse into a “negative caricature” of his output. “He actually did a lot more than that,” Spira added. “He did a lot of leisure, not just people going to football games, but also seasides, festivals, people having fun, enjoying themselves – classic English social life.”
Recent Rediscoveries and Legacy
Earlier this year, LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes gave viewers insight into the artist through rediscovered interviews, lip-synced by Sir Ian McKellen playing Lowry. The BBC film was based on interviews conducted in 1972 by Angela Barratt; when she died in 2022, the tapes were discovered by her son. The conversations were described by the Guardian as “tender, revealing – and desperately moving”.
McKellen criticised Tate in 2011 for not giving enough attention to Lowry. Two years later, Lowry was given a show at Tate Britain featuring 90 of his works, mostly focused on industrial scenes. His most famous painting, Going to the Match, was bought for £7.8m in 2022 by the Lowry arts centre in Salford, saving it from disappearing into a private collection.
The exhibition at MK Gallery is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his death. Lowry died just a few months before the opening of a major retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy.
