I was glancing at one of these Antique Roadshow shows this afternoon on PBS, which was visiting the north of England. This little old lady brings in this painting from the 1950’s that looks like it was painted by a not that talented 6th grader, and and the art expert’s eyes grow wide and he oohs and aahs, and tells her this is an undiscovered painting by L.S. Lowery and because of it’s importance and collectability is potentially worth over 100,000 pounds ($ 155,000 dollars). Lady is trembling with excitement and practically crying tears of joy.
As I looked at the painting prior to them showing the picture of the artist, I kept staring at this fairly crude picture trying to imagine what the backstory was… “He painted it with his toes, the only part of his body he could move”. Then this picture of a well dressed Englishman pops up and I go “What the hell, he’s got both arms and legs working!?”
I’m still going “WTH?”
I looked up his work on the net and it seems, based on the subject matter, that he’s sort of a less talented Norman Rockwell type painter/illustrator who painted (crudely) everyday scenes of ordinary life.
He has passed on but he even has his own web site. See his work here
If it makes you feel any better, I’m a doctoral student in art history and I ain’t never heard of him. So, IMEO (in my elitist opinion) perhaps he’s a well-loved artist, a popular artist, and a talented artist, but he’s not known in the snooty sphere as an important artist.
But maybe it’s an English thing.
He is one of the best english artisis of his time. His pictures evoke a landscape (Cityscape) of depression and poverty, in which he lived. They are full of movement and subtlety.
Imagine Bruce Springsteen born 100 years ago in the north of England and becoming a painter.
Lowry captured grimy, polluted, working class districts of northern English cities in the 30s, 40s, 50s. You can smell the coal fires in the homes and the sulfur and junk coming from the factories. It’s extremely popular in the UK because it reminds people of a recent bygone age - the factories are all shut now, but people over 40 can still remember at least a bit of this era. As in the old metal-bashing cultures of other industrialized areas (think Flint, Michigan) there was a community spirit in those districts that’s vanished. Economically, it had to go, but people romanticize it, and Lowry delivers the memories and the nostalgia.
Lowry’s style only looks crude at first glance… it’s actually distinctive, and highly expressive. Kind of like Hemingway’s prose, really; deceptively simple, easy to parody, impossible to imitate. I’d disagree with Hemlock over Lowry’s work being either romantic or nostalgic about its sources, although some people seem determined to see it that way.
The fact that Lowry’s paintings are instantly recognisable, even by an artistic ignoramus like me, surely shows he has a well-developed and characteristic style. (Back when I was working in sewage, I was on a survey with one of the engineers in my department. While we were measuring up drains in the pouring rain, this old chap took pity on us, and asked us in for a cup of tea. I looked around his sitting room, noted bookcases, old furniture, Lowry print on one wall… hang on, Lowry original on one wall… sound of Steve’s jaw dropping. Obviously, since it was in a private home, it wasn’t a painting that had been widely exhibited or reproduced. But, even to Fine Arts Dumbo Steve Wright, the style was immediately distinctive.)
" 10. His most expensive painting, Going to the Match was sold to the Professional Footballers Association for £1,926,500 in December - a record price at auction for any modern British painting. It shows a crowd of fans on their way to Bolton Wanderers’ home ground and, said PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor, represents “the heart and soul of the game”. "