LS Lowry: Going to the Match bought for Permanent Exhibition at The Lowry Centre

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Posted 2022-10-23 by David Keyworth ⇒ follow

Going to the Match is now a permanent fixture in Salford after the painting by LS Lowry was purchased by the arts centre named after him.

The work depicts a crowd outside Burnden Park - the former home of Bolton Wanderers, who played there between 1895 and 1997. The club relocated to the Reebok Stadium, now the University of Bolton Stadium. Burnden Park was demolished to make way for retail development.

The Lowry Centre successfully bid for the 1953 oil on canvas painting last week at the Modern British & Irish Art Sale at Christie's in London. The £7.8m payment including fees was supported by The Law Family Charitable Foundation .

Businessman Andrew Law and his wife Zoë established the Law Family Charitable Foundation to provide long-term support for worthwhile causes that are important to them. Their affection and support for The Lowry Centre is long standing. In 2014, they donated £1m to the centre. The main exhibition spaces are being named the Andrew & Zoë Law Galleries in recognition of their support.

Andrew Law said: "LS Lowry's depiction of people attending a football match is just one of his many incredible genres of work, but it is undoubtedly his most iconic."

Going to the Match has been, on loan, in The Lowry's line-up since it opened in 2000, courtesy of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA). When the PFA decided to sell it The Lowry was determined to secure the painting for their collection.

Paul Dennett, Salford's City Mayor, said: "LS Lowry, Salford's greatest and most iconic artist, made his name depicting working-class life – as such we emphatically believed Going to the Match should remain on public view free to access where everyone can see it."

LS Lowry was a Manchester City fan. One of his other football paintings is Manchester City vs Sheffield United (1938). It was inspired by Manchester City beating Sheffield United 3-2, on 22nd October 1938.

The Lowry Centre, Salford Quays, is both named in honour of the artist and is home to "the world's largest public collection of paintings and drawings by LS Lowry." It is situated close to the Media City tram stop, which opened in 2010.

Last year the centre acquired LS Lowry's David Lloyd-George's Birthplace, Manchester (1958). It reached The Lowry Centre via The Acceptance in Lieu Scheme, which exists as an alternative to Inheritance Tax payments.

In 2019 the Lowry Centre held the Gala Premiere of Mrs Lowry & Son. Directed by Adrian Noble, the film featured Timothy Spall as the painter and Vanessa Redgrave as his demanding mother Elizabeth.

LS Lowry (Laurie to his mother) worked as a claims clerk and rent collector for Pall Mall Property Company. The company's offices were just off Market Street, in Manchester city centre. The premise now houses a Tesco Metro store.

He received his first one-man exhibition in London in 1939, at the Lefevre gallery. He died aged 88 in 1976, just months before a retrospective exhibition opened at the Royal Academy.