L. S. Lowry

L. S. Lowry
Ganwyd	1 Tachwedd 1887  Stretford, Old Trafford
Bu farw	23 Chwefror 1976  Glossop
Dinasyddiaeth	y Deyrnas Unedig
Alma mater	Manchester School of Art Prifysgol Salford Prifysgol Fetropolitan Manceinion
Galwedigaeth	arlunydd, arlunydd graffig, gwneuthurwr printiau, artist
Adnabyddus am	Going to the Match
Arddull	celf tirlun, peintio genre, portread
Mudiad	celf naïf

L. S. Lowry

Arlunydd o Sais oedd Laurence Stephen Lowry (1 Tachwedd 1887 – 23 Chwefror 1976). Fe'i ganwyd yn Stretford, ger Manceinion. Darluniodd Pendlebury droeon, sef maestref pedair milltir i'r gogledd o ganol Manceinion; yma y gweithiodd ac yma y treuliodd 40 mlynedd o'i fywyd. Roedd Manceinion yn fwrlwm o ddiwydiant yng nghanol yr 20g ac nid oedd gan Lowry ofn ei ddarlunio, a'r bobl roedd yn eu plith.

Datblygodd steil unigryw o beintio'r hyn a oedd o'i gwmpas: tirluniau yn llawn diwydiant a phobl a elwir gan eraill yn "bobl matsys" ("matchstick men"). Cyhoeddwyd y gweithiau "marionette" wedi ei farwolaeth.

Anwybyddai'r tywydd i raddau helaeth ac roedd ei bobl yn 'garactures' syml; ac oherwydd hyn galwyd ef gan rai yn naïf. "Sunday painter", er nad yw hyn yn farn y rhan fwyaf o galeriau mwya'r byd.

Arddangosir casgliad eitha swmpus o'i waith mewn galeri gyhoeddus o'i waith yn Salford Quays, galeri o'r enw "The Lowry".

Darlun gan Lowry o Huddersfield yn 1965.

Gwrthododd Lowry bum anrhydedd gan gynnwys ei wneud yn Farchog gan Frenhines Lloegr yn 1968; yn wir ef yw'r Prydeiniwr sydd wedi gwrthod y mwyaf o anrhydeddau.

Ar 26 Mehefin 2013 agorwyd arddangosfa fawr o'i waith yn Tate Britain yn Llundain, y tro cyntaf idynt arddangos casgliad o'i waith.

Dyfyniadau

Ar dirluniau diwydiannol:

• "We went to Pendlebury in 1909 from a residential side of Manchester, and we didn't like it. My father wanted to go to get near a friend for business reasons. We lived next door, and for a long time my mother never got to like it, and at first I disliked it, and then after about a year or so I got used to it, and then I got absorbed in it, then I got infatuated with it. Then I began to wonder if anyone had ever done it. Seriously, not one or two, but seriously; and it seemed to me by that time that it was a very fine industrial subject matter. And I couldn't see anybody at that time who had done it - and nobody had done it, it seemed."
• "Most of my land and townscape is composite. Made up; part real and part imaginary [...] bits and pieces of my home locality. I don't even know I'm putting them in. They just crop up on their own, like things do in dreams."

Ar ei steil:

• "I wanted to paint myself into what absorbed me [...] Natural figures would have broken the spell of it, so I made my figures half unreal. Some critics have said that I turned my figures into puppets, as if my aim were to hint at the hard economic necessities that drove them. To say the truth, I was not thinking very much about the people. I did not care for them in the way a social reformer does. They are part of a private beauty that haunted me. I loved them and the houses in the same way: as part of a vision.
• "I am a simple man, and I use simple materials: ivory black, vermilion, prussian blue, yellow ochre, flake white and no medium. That's all I've ever used in my paintings. I like oils [...] I like a medium you can work into over a period of time."

Ar ei baentiadau o lan y môr:

• "It's the battle of life - the turbulence of the sea [...] I have been fond of the sea all my life, how wonderful it is, yet how terrible it is. But I often think [...] what if it suddenly changed its mind and didn't turn the tide? And came straight on? If it didn't stay and came on and on and on and on [...] That would be the end of it all."

Ar gelf:

• "You don't need brains to be a painter, just feelings."
• "I am not an artist. I am a man who paints."
• "This art is a terrible business."