Lowry and the Sea: ‘intriguing’ show explores ‘enigmatic’ seascapes

L.S. Lowry (1887-1976) will forever be associated with the “industrial cityscapes” he painted of his native Lancashire, said William Cook in The Critic. The artist spent most of his life in Pendlebury in Greater Manchester, where he was born, raised, worked as a rent collector – and produced his depictions of “dark satanic mills and smoking chimney stacks”. But from the 1930s until his death, he spent his summer holidays in Berwick-upon-Tweed, an “unfashionable seaside town” far removed from the “bright lights” of resorts such as Blackpool. Here, “far from the stress and bustle of his daily life”, he made a number of “enigmatic” seaside paintings that, unlike his urban scenes, were mostly “bereft of human life”.

This exhibition features more than 20 paintings, pastels and drawings; it explores Lowry’s connections to Berwick and his little-understood seascapes, revealing “an entirely different side” to his work. It’s an “intriguing” show that tells us much about “the inner life of this introverted artist”.