Million pound L S Lowry painting of Liverpool’s The Liver Building comes to Tate Liverpool
As part of DLA Piper Series International Modern Art
Focus Room: 14 October 2006 – 9 April 2007
Sponsored by DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary
L S Lowry’s masterpiece painting The Liver Building 1962 will be exhibited at Tate Liverpool as part of a special Lowry in Liverpool Focus Room, situated within the DLA Piper Series: International Modern Art display. Recently auctioned at Christie’s, The Liver Building 1962 was sold to a private collector for £1.2 million – the second highest price ever paid for a Lowry work.
The Focus Room, at the start of the display, offers a more intimate look at the work of a particular artist. The forgotten masterpiece by L S Lowry, The Liver Building 1962, will form the centrepiece of a special Focus Room devoted to the artist. Set to become an iconic image of Liverpool, the painting depicts the city’s distinctive skyline and is unusual because most of Lowry’s cityscapes were of Manchester and Salford. This is a unique chance to see a painting that has only been seen once before in public, at the Walker Art Gallery in 1973.
The Liver Building 1962 is complemented by other rarely seen paintings and drawings of Liverpool, as well as works of other subjects from private collections in Liverpool. Lowry had a distinctive style, using a basic palette of colours, and often populating his urban landscapes with his famous ‘matchstick men’. Lowry’s combination of observation and imaginative power produced images which capture a deeply felt experience of place, with which everyone can identify.