L.S. Lowry

Art Education And Its Social Context

As long as the arts have been in existence, audience members, artists, and 
performers have been educated for their roles. Every culture has devised 
ways to select and prepare individuals to engage in these roles. Here is 
information about the teaching of visual art throughout the history of 
education, both before and after public education came upon the scene.

The ways these techniques are taught today were conditioned by the beliefs 
and values regarding this field. The degrees and values regarding this 
tentative field were held by those who advocated its teaching in the past. 
Many of these early supporters were socially powerful individuals who 
influenced the educational policies of their day. For them, the teaching of 
this subject was neither capricious nor accidental, but rather it was done 
to further social, moral, and economic aims.

A sense of elitism clings to the teaching of the visual art. Many schools 
regard this line of study as a special subject to be pursued by a privileged 
or talented few. However, for one to understand how these attitudes arose, 
one must get a glimpse of the beginnings of education in Western culture. 
Nonetheless, the study of the teaching this technique is important in 
linking its role in education today.

A central issue in education of this technique, as in general education, is 
access to instruction. In very early times this technique was either learned 
through group rituals that were the integral part of worship or taught to a 
selected few through arduous apprenticeship. While some societies regarded 
knowledge of this field as the privilege of social elite, others thought 
that the practice of visual arts was fit only for slaves and the children of 
artisans.

With the rise of universal literacy, in the 19th century, the first 
tentative efforts to introduce arts and music into public education began in 
spite of objections from segments of the public. Their introduction was 
often described as educational reform. This was a privilege bestowed by the 
school on the young as part of a free public education. However, having a 
privileged status exacts its social costs. It removed this subject from the 
realm of necessities.

As this history unfolds, it is clear that that the teaching of this field 
was organized within a series of institutional settings. In the Middle Ages, 
it was controlled by the higher clergy, who served as the patrons, 
educators, and sometimes the artists themselves. By the high Middle Ages, 
education in this subject, was regulated by the craft guides.In the 19th 
century, working class women in Europe could study how to apply this 
technique in decoration. On the other hand, the study of fine arts, except 
under highly unusual circumstances, was for men. Therefore, throughout the 
history of education of this field, access of instructions was affected by 
class, gender, and the general social status of the subject of study.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was the secular court that sponsored 
artists to academies, and music then taking form. In current times, 
instructions in this field are transmitted through a complex network of 
formal and informal institutions. These may include professional art 
schools, museums and museum schools, publications, the mass media, and 
compulsory schooling. Instruction is available for the amateur and 
professional, in private classes with one student and in group classes of 
all sizes. Great diversity characterizes access to this subject today, but 
this was not always the case.

David Tatham, fine picture dealer for more than quarter of a century, has an 
extensive knowledge of Lowry signed prints. Signed limited edition prints 
and drawings can be seen and purchased from the website. 
http://www.cornwater.com

LSLowry died aged 88 in 1976 just months before a retrospective exhibition of his paintings opened at the Royal Academy. It broke all attendance records for a twentieth century artist. Critical opinion about Lowry remains divided to this day. Salford Museum & Art Gallery began collecting the artist's work in 1936 and gradually built up the collection which is now at the heart of the award-winning building bearing the artist's name. Celebrating his art and transforming the cityscape again. A small quantity of paintings by the artist l.s. lowry were published as signed limited edition prints. Some of the most well known being, 'Going to the match', Man lying on a wall, Huddersfield, Deal, ferry boats, three cats Alstow, Berwick-on-Tweed, peel park, The two brothers, View of a town, Street scene.