Mills of Northwest – Millscapes at Touchstones Rochdale
24 May '07
3 min read
Paintings from the 1930s and 40s include 'Our Town' snd 'Street Scene' by LS Lowry. These works feature the rigid lines and smoking chimneys that dominate Lowry's work, and provide a stark contrast to Harry Rutherford's cheerful 'Mill Girls, Ashton' (1948).
Another contrast, Harold Hemingway's 'Rochdale, Views Over the Town Centre in 1856 and 1956' are uncharacteristically optimistic paintings, and Oldham artist Helen Bradley painted nostalgic images which look back to the boom of the early 20th Century.
By the 1980s, over half of the mills and cloth-finishing works in Greater Manchester had been demolished or were derelict and Liam Spencer has been capturing this changing landscape. His paintings of scenes of Manchester since the 1980s capture its regeneration and 'Rooftops' (1995/6) and 'The End of the Mancunian Way' (c.1993) are on show in the Millscapes exhibition.
The ongoing inspiration of the changing urban landscapes of the North West is shown in Peter Stanaway's 'Now the Mill Has Gone' (2005), Walter Kershaw's 'Mutual Mills Reflections' (2007), Alan Rankle's 'Saddleworth Study: Uppermill' (2006) and David Gledhill's 'Old Mill Street' (2007).
The exhibition is part of a Heritage Lottery funded 'Your Heritage' scheme to examine the heritage of the textile industry in the North West and will be on show at Gallery Oldham from November 17 2007 to February 2 2008.
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