The Salford Museum & Art Gallery Shows James Milroy's Recent Paintings

Written by Ernest Hardwicke Wednesday, 22 June 2011 21:43

Salford, UK.- The Salford Museum and Art Gallery is proud to present "Crowding About and Other Paintings", an exhibition by James Milroy on view at the museum until October 2nd. This exhibition is a mini retrospective of the last three years' work of James Milroy’s. Milroy’s work had been referred to as the new L. S. Lowry but with a contemporary setting. Instead of mills there are call centres and supermarkets. Instead of people walking in the park they are at the gym running on the treadmill. There is certainly a topicality to James Milroy’s work with scenes of anti-cuts protestors, royal wedding crowds, a series of paintings on the banking crisis and closer to home football fans, both City & United, partying together after this brilliant season.

The Salford Museum and Art Gallery used to house the work of L. S. Lowry, before the Lowry Centre opened in Salford Quays, making this a particularly apt venue to host Milroy's work. Milroy has painted a tribute to Lowry especially for this exhibition but despite this influence his paintings are his own specialising in depicting crowd scenes.

James Milroy has been making art obsessively for thirty years but was only recently described as an 'emerging artist'. As a child he drew and painted people all the time. He was heavily into war gaming so the pictures were mostly battle scenes, with limbs and weapons flying in all directions. Since then he has painted extensively in every genre - portraiture, still life, landscape and abstraction - as well as being a sculptor for many years – but the one subject he keeps coming back to is the human crowd. After a trip to China in the Olympic year of 2008  he was inspired to begin the 'CrowdingAbout' Series.


These paintings use a format based on isometric perspective to take a detached, aerial view of human crowds engaged in a multitude of leisure and work-related activities. These works express a fine balance – or tension - between communality and individuality. On one level these crowds are an expression of uniformity - the people are all wearing the same stuff and doing the same activity - and this is what makes them work as colourful, semi-abstract patterns. On the other hand, look closely and you can see a huge variety of character, gesture and expression among them. Some individuals stand out. Depending on your viewpoint you could find these paintings nightmarish – or just seriously funny. Milroy's work has been compared with that of Bruegel, William Hogarth, Honoré Daumier, and of course Lowry, but despite these influences his take on the world is all his own.

With the popular permanent attractions of The Victorian Gallery and Lark Hill Place, as well as the ever changing temporary exhibitions, there is always something for everyone at Salford Museum and Art Gallery, from hands-on activities to modern art. The museum first opened to the public in November 1850 as the "Royal Museum & Public Library". The gallery and museum are devoted to the history of Salford and Victorian art and architecture. Through the use of public subscriptions along with Queens Park and Phillips Park in Manchester the original site Lark Hill estate and mansion was purchased for its purpose to become the first Royal Museum and Public Library to open to the public in November 1850. Throughout the years the popularity of the museum significantly increased and it was in 1936 that the original site Lark Hill Mansion was found to be unsound and due to structural instability was demolished. Two years was required for the new wing, which was designed in the same fashion as the Langworthy Wing to be completed and opened in 1938.  More than 160,000 visitors were attracted to the museum in its first year to explore casts of antique statues, collection of paintings, Egyptian and Oriental antiques and other significant objects and exhibitions. Visitor numbers have steadily inreased, year on year. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.salford.gov.uk/salfordmuseum.htm

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