LS Lowry : The Theatre of Life

Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887–1976) was a British painter, best known for his industrial landscapes of the northwest of England. He was born in Stretford, Greater Manchester and studied at the Municipal College of Art, Manchester, Salford School of Art and Manchester Academy of Fine Arts while working as a clerk and rent collector – a job he continued until his retirement in 1952. LS Lowry accompanies MK Gallery''s exhibition marking the fiftieth anniversary of the artist’s death.

Famously restricting himself to just five undiluted oil colours - ivory black, vermilion, Prussian blue, yellow ochre and flake white - Lowry developed a distinctive visual language. From around 1915, following advice from his tutor Bernard Taylor, Lowry painted on a white ground, allowing dark, shadowless forms to stand starkly against luminous surfaces.

While Lowry remains hugely popular, this catalogue looks beyond his iconic industrial landscapes to reveal the full breadth of his practice. It brings together early academic figure studies, cityscapes in pencil and charcoal, works in pastel and watercolour, alongside seascapes, portraits and surreal compositions. A complex figure, Lowry kept his life and art separate, fostering myths that still surround him: that he was a loner, self-taught, and disconnected from art history and the modernist tradition. His career unfolded amid profound changes in British society, as the workers, mills, terraced housing and urban landscapes he painted were bombed, cleared and transformed. These themes are explored throughout the book.