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L. S. Lowry Quotes

Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist. Many of his drawings and paintings depict Pendlebury, Lancashire, where he lived and worked for more than 40 years, and also Salford and its surrounding areas.

Lowry is famous for painting scenes of life in the industrial districts of North West England in the mid-20th century. He developed a distinctive style of painting and is best known for his urban landscapes peopled with human figures often referred to as "matchstick men". He painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, brooding portraits and the unpublished "marionette" works, which were only found after his death.

Due to his use of stylized figures and the lack of weather effects in many of his landscapes he is sometimes characterized as a naïve "Sunday painter", although this is not the view of the galleries that have organised retrospectives of his works.A large collection of Lowry's work is on permanent public display in The Lowry, a purpose-built art gallery on Salford Quays, named in his honour. Lowry rejected five honours during his life, including a knighthood in 1968, and consequently holds the record for the most rejected British honours. On 26 June 2013 a major retrospective opened at the Tate Britain in London, his first at the Tate, and in 2014 his first solo exhibition outside the UK was held in Nanjing, China.

✵ 1. November 1887 – 23. February 1976
L. S. Lowry photo
L. S. Lowry: 12 quotes6 likes

Famous L. S. Lowry Quotes

“You don't need brains to be a painter, just feelings”

L. S. Lowry

Interview with Frank & Vicent Tilsley. Lancashire Made them .News Chronicle & Daily Dispatch 1 Dec 1955.
Other

“I look upon human beings as automatons.. because they all think they can do what they want but they can't. They are not free. No one is”

L. S. Lowry

Maitland Tapes-interview with Prof. Hugh Maitland 1970 L. S. Lowry - A Biography by Shelley Rhode Lowry Press 1999 ISBN 9781902970011.
Maitland Tapes

“I see lots of people everywhere, one lot going one way and the other lot going in the opposite way, as a rule.”

L. S. Lowry

Response in a letter to David Carr 9 Dec 1943 concerning his style L. S. Lowry - A Biography by Shelley Rhode Lowry Press 1999 ISBN 9781902970011.
Other

“An artist can't produce great art unless he has a philosophy. He can't say something unlee he has something to say.”

L. S. Lowry

Interview tapes Cotton & Mullineux

“I am not an artist just someone who paints.”

L. S. Lowry

Interview tapes Cotton & Mullineux

“I've a one track mind, sir. Poverty and gloom. Never a joyous picture of mine you'll see. Always gloom. I never do a jolly picture.”

L. S. Lowry

Tynes Tees Television Interview 1968

“I don't pretend to be a gentleman, but I am entitled to paint what I see”

L. S. Lowry

Interview tapes with G B Cotton & Frank Mullineux (undated)L. S. Lowry - A Biography by Shelley Rhode Lowry Press 1999 ISBN 9781902970011.
Interview tapes Cotton & Mullineux

“A street is not a street without people.. the composition was incidental to the people.”

L. S. Lowry

Interview tapes Cotton & Mullineux

“I don't care tuppence for what they do in London in the art world. It doesn't matter to me. I don't think of it. All I am concerned with is doing my own thing in my own way.. as well as I can.”

L. S. Lowry

Mister Lowry- interview Tyne Tees Television 1968 L. S. Lowry - A Biography by Shelley Rhode Lowry Press 1999 ISBN 9781902970011.
Tynes Tees Television Interview 1968

L. S. Lowry Quotes about painting

“Without knowing what it was, I had an instinctive feeling that the time had come to drop industrials (paintings). Now I feel more strongly than ever that the figures stand on their own two feet.”

L. S. Lowry

Tape interview with Monty Bloom L. S. Lowry - A Biography by Shelley Rhode Lowry Press 1999 ISBN 9781902970011.
Other

“You cannot teach painting because everyone's colour sense is different. But drawing.. you either get it right or wrong. You can tell whether people have drawn from life from their pictures.”

L. S. Lowry

Tynes Tees Television Interview 1968

“All my life I have felt most strongly against social distinction of any kind. I have at all time tried to paint to the best of my ability and would only hope that any remembrance of me when I'm am gone will be base on my work.”

L. S. Lowry

Letter of 1967 and 1970 to Prime Ministers Wilson and Heath declining knighthood.L. S. Lowry - A Biography by Shelley Rhode Lowry Press 1999 ISBN 9781902970011.
Other

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