Or more accurately, a Lowry retrospective at Tate Britain. Went down on Sunday for a couple of nights, primarily for ‘private’ showing at the Tate on the Monday evening, the result of a competition win by Denise through the show sponsor, the Independent.
More on Lowry in a jiffy, as we also managed to squeeze in a couple of visits to English Heritage properties whilst we were down. The first was to the Jewel Tower, which dates back almost 650 years. It was built around 1365 to house Edward III’s treasures and was known as the ‘King’s Privy Wardrobe’. One of only two buildings from the medieval Palace of Westminster to survive the fire of 1834, the tower also features a 14th century ribbed vault. A great find, and although its age and preservation were fascinating, it was almost as interesting to discover the uses to which it had been put in subsequent centuries. Until 1834, it housed the records from the House of Lords and finished its public life as the home of the Board of Trade’s Standards Department. Notwithstanding the no doubt Standards Department’s critical work, can’t help feeling that’s quite a depressing end to its working life! Easy to miss as it sits unobtrusively between the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey.
We also visited the Chapter House and Pyx Chamber, both housed in Westminster Abbey itself. The Chapter House dates from 1250 and is a beautiful octagonal building with a lovely vaulted ceiling. It also offers rarely seen examples of medieval sculpture, an original floor of glazed tiles and some very fine wall paintings. The 11th century Pyx Chamber also has a medieval tiled floor, and was used as a monastic and royal treasury. It contains a 13th century stone altar which survived the Reformation. As seems to be our practice these days, we also took a look at another of London’s smaller unsung museums, in this case the one dedicated to Florence Nightingale. Nothing earth shattering, but informative and worth a look. Bit pricey for what it is.
Back to Lowry – clearly he divides opinion, although from what I’ve read recently it appears that virtually every metrocentic, southern to the core art critic appears to loathe him. We thoroughly enjoyed it, although it did seem a little odd not to display chronologically, as it was very difficult to discern any kind of stylistic development as you went from room to room. I know many disdain the ‘matchstick men and women’ for which he is best known (thanks Brian and Malcolm) but there appears to be far more to him than that. I guess his themes are a little one dimensional, and it seems sometimes a little hard to tell whether he views the urban milieu he depicts with empathy or disdain (or both) but there is no doubt he captures the spirit, despair and sheer repetitiveness of life in among the factories and terraces of the North West.
I’ve seen reviews from critics who clearly have no time for Lowry as a painter but still rate the retrospective and urge everyone to see it for themselves. Others take their preconceptions with them, dislike it before they’ve seen it and then use their review as an affirmation of their own beliefs. In doing so, they provide absolutely no insight about the retrospective at all. Which is of course of absolutely no value to the reader. All we are left with is a piece of writing which may or may not be of intrinsic interest as prose but is useless as criticism. Yes, Waldemar Januszczak, I’m talking about you. That’s £2.50 I’ll never get back. Explain the logic of sending a self confessed despiser of Lowry’s work to do a review of an exhibition of the painter’s work. If I went to a Coldplay concert and told you it was crap, it would have no merit for anyone reading it – because you know I can’t stand the band!
Special thumbs down to the Tate jobsworth who decided to close the special showing at 9.00pm (but only told us at 8.50pm), presumably because the full 200 invitees hadn’t turned up, when the Independent had clearly set it up to run until 10.30pm, . We had to rush the last two rooms and some who had arrived later than us had even less time. Hopefully, no-one turned up at 9.00pm hoping to catch the event for the last hour and a half or so.
We did also have a wander around London over the two days, but I have to confess we didn’t unduly exert ourselves. In our defence it was, in measly mitigation, bloody hot and very busy.