COLLECTING GUIDES Northern art strokes of his brush or pen, finding his inspiration in the landscape of North Wales and Lancashire, and in the streets of Manchester and Salford.
EXPRESSIONIST INFLUENCE
Northern lights With a growing number of dedicated collectors, Northern art is in the spotlight. Cheshire specialist dealer and collector Martin Heaps reveals the names making waves
N
orthern art embraces the work of a multitude of 20th-century (and contemporary) artists who not only lived and worked in the North, but most importantly, took the landscape and culture of the region as their primary source of inspiration. From factories and coal mines, to rows of terraced houses, Northern artists brilliantly portrayed everyday life and elevated it into an artform.
OLD GUARD You cannot speak of the genre without mentioning LS Lowry (1887-1976), as he is, without a doubt, the most famous of the bunch. Lowry developed a distinctive style of painting and is best known for his urban landscapes with human figures, often referred to as ‘matchstick men’. He had an extraordinary ability to record seemingly mundane moments with his distinctive short-hand technique, describing a whole way of life with just a few
32 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
Above William Turner (1920-2013) Reopening of The Palace Theatre, 1981 Right Brian Shields
(Braaq) (1951-1997) Fairground sold for £11,500 at the Leyburn auction house Tennants in March 2019, image courtesy of Tennants
William Ralph Turner (1920-2013) was the last of the great northern industrial painters who belonged to the Northern School of Artists influenced by LS Lowry. In the ‘50s and ‘60s he was a regular visitor to the exhibitions held at the Crane Kalman Gallery in Manchester, where he was influenced by the works of the German Expressionists and the French Fauves, including Maurice de Vlaminck (1876–1958) and Georges Rouaul (1871-1958). After being inspired by their work, he applied their colours and techniques to the industrial landscapes of the northwest of England. Turner painted the North West and surrounding areas for about 60 years, often from memories and images obtained while indulging another of his passions – long-distance cycling. He was able to tell incredible stories through his art and his paintings are vibrant and vigorous, with a strong use of colour which lightens his often industrial subject matter.
BRAAQ TO THE FUTURE Another pioneer of the northern art scene was Brian Shields (1951–1997) who is best known for painting industrial scenes of northern Britain. The unusual name of ‘Braaq’ is a misspelling of the famous French artist Braque which, on account of his artistic talent as a boy, was his nickname at school. Braaq was born in Liverpool and was the fourth child in a family of 12, all of whom followed the arts. He launched into his professional career at the age of 23 following worldwide coverage of his anonymous murals. Having not been encouraged to become an artist, Shields became a trainee chef working at a drab hotel. Looking to brighten up the hotel, Shields painted a mural, signing it Braaq to hide his identity. The identity of the mystery painter remained unknown for five weeks until Braaq was unmasked by a local journalist. After that he was highly praised for his work following his first exhibition, and his paintings have since been shown worldwide in galleries from Canada to Holland, as well as London’s Royal Academy.
