Lowry's Bench...

I've mentioned artist L.S. Lowry a couple of times already during this Manchester365 project, so I thought it would be fitting to give the old guy a spot of his own. The artist lived at The Elms, Stalybridge Road, Mottram from 1948 until he died in 1976 aged 88. In 2005 a statue of him on a bench was unveiled some hundred yards or so from his home. Laurence Stephen Lowry was born in Stretford, Manchester in 1887. Before living in Mottram his family had lived in Pendlebury, Salford. It was these working-class streets that inspired much of his subject matter. His distinctive style of painting is instantly recognisable and is held in both private and public collections. In 2011 his oil painting of London's Piccadilly Circus sold at auction for 5.6 million equalling the previous most expensive Lowry 'The Football Match'. I haven't always appreciated Lowry but over the last decade or so I have come to admire and better understand much of his work, especially the scenes of everyday life in early 20th-century North West, England. Because so much of the industrial landscape that he painted has now gone or has changed beyond recognition, his work is an important documentary of a vanished time. These paintings are as much about the people as they are of the factories, mills and chimney stacks. Masses of people are dwarfed by the buildings and often bent or bowed as if by the rigours of a working life. Lowry's figures are frequently referred to as 'Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs' as featured in the 1977 one-hit wonder by Brian Burke & Michael Colman. Lowry was shy and reserved, he holds the record for declining the most British honours; a total of five, including a knighthood in 1968. Many of his works are on display in The Lowry gallery at Salford Quays, Manchester Art Gallery on Mosley Street and the Whitworth Art Gallery in Whitworth Park, opposite Manchester Royal Infirmary. So here's to you Mr Lowry, I'm sure your name will crop up many more times in my project.