Visit to Lowry Centre 17/05/07
We arrived safely in a slightly wind blown condition and were introduced to the curator responsible for the exhibition of Lowry paintings and photographs by Ian Berry callled "The Water Project"
We were comfortably seated, like an elementary class in front of a number of paintings. One five foot by five foot painting depicted terraced houses, what appeared to be the river Irwell with industrial buildings which looked like mills with an odd church thrown in.
Lowry attended Art College and one of the paintings had been done by his art teacher and next to it was a copy of the statue which Lowry had painted as a student. A lot of his paintings have a very light almost white background. This was the result of his art teacher telling him that his work did not stand out from his backgrounds. He enjoyed depicting the industrial scenes because this was what life was like at that time.
We saw a photograph of Lowry in his three piece suit and tie with his china cup and saucer in his hand. He was a tall man, worked as an estate agent, collecting rents. He started painting seriously in the 1970's whilst looking after his mother, who was very close to him.
After Lowry's painting, we looked at photographs by Ian Berry. These were opportunist photos taken by him world wide whilst on his journalistic assignments.
One photo shows a white couple walking on a beach and two young black boys running in the opposite direction. This was a white only beach in South Africa, not a pretty happy holiday snap.
Another photo showed a group of women beside a water pump which was painted red. This was an indication that the water was polluted by arsenic. The women were holding out their hand and arms to show the black patches on their skin which indicated arsenic poisening. It was their only source of water.
Another photo showed many many people pulling on hawsers attached to a large cargo vessel which would then be broken up by hand. There also appeared to be a body being pulled from the water.
After a very enjoyable exhibition with information from Lindsay and descriptions from Ann, we adjourned to the bar for very welcome tea and scrummy biscuits. Also thanks to the other Lowry staff on hand to help and point us in the right direction.
This missive has been a joint effort by Ken and Elaine.
We were comfortably seated, like an elementary class in front of a number of paintings. One five foot by five foot painting depicted terraced houses, what appeared to be the river Irwell with industrial buildings which looked like mills with an odd church thrown in.
Lowry attended Art College and one of the paintings had been done by his art teacher and next to it was a copy of the statue which Lowry had painted as a student. A lot of his paintings have a very light almost white background. This was the result of his art teacher telling him that his work did not stand out from his backgrounds. He enjoyed depicting the industrial scenes because this was what life was like at that time.
We saw a photograph of Lowry in his three piece suit and tie with his china cup and saucer in his hand. He was a tall man, worked as an estate agent, collecting rents. He started painting seriously in the 1970's whilst looking after his mother, who was very close to him.
After Lowry's painting, we looked at photographs by Ian Berry. These were opportunist photos taken by him world wide whilst on his journalistic assignments.
One photo shows a white couple walking on a beach and two young black boys running in the opposite direction. This was a white only beach in South Africa, not a pretty happy holiday snap.
Another photo showed a group of women beside a water pump which was painted red. This was an indication that the water was polluted by arsenic. The women were holding out their hand and arms to show the black patches on their skin which indicated arsenic poisening. It was their only source of water.
Another photo showed many many people pulling on hawsers attached to a large cargo vessel which would then be broken up by hand. There also appeared to be a body being pulled from the water.
After a very enjoyable exhibition with information from Lindsay and descriptions from Ann, we adjourned to the bar for very welcome tea and scrummy biscuits. Also thanks to the other Lowry staff on hand to help and point us in the right direction.
This missive has been a joint effort by Ken and Elaine.
posted by elaine at 10:55 AM
1 Comments:
May 24, 2007 6:24 PM
Our thanks to Elaine and Ken, for the very discriptive account of the last bun fight they had been to! sorry i meant to say Lowry centre, it is a good thing that( somethings have altered for the better.
p.s Elaine I have sent the tape back! your email is not. hence this p,s Don
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