Alan Lowndes British, 1921-1978

Alan Lowndes was a British painter known for his depictions of everyday life in the northern regions. He also spent time in St Ives and developed close friendships with artists from the St Ives School.

 

Born in Heaton Norris, Lancashire, in 1921, and the fifth child of a railway clerk, he left school at 14 and became an apprentice to a decorator. After serving during World War II, he studied painting at night school but was primarily self-taught. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Lowndes began to achieve success and held solo exhibitions in Manchester, London, and New York, and his works are featured in many public collections. Although often compared to L.S. Lowry, Terry Frost considers Lowndes to be a superior painter. Alan Lowndes passed away in Gloucestershire in 1978.

 

In 2008, Grayson Perry selected Lowndes' work for his Unpopular Culture exhibition. In 2021, the Crane Kalman Gallery in London commemorated the centenary of Lowndes' birth with an exhibition. Reviewing the exhibition, David Nowell Smith of the University of East Anglia expressed the opinion that it was time for Alan Lowndes to gain recognition independent of L.S. Lowry.