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Architecture and urban spaces have always had a special place in the imagination of artists. Skylines, maps or the infrastructures of our cities have inspired painters, sculptors and printmakers alike.
Bringing together a small selection of works from the Gallery of Modern Art's permanent collection, from Eduardo Paolozzi to Toby Paterson, this display highlights the crucial position of urban space as a playground of ideas for artists in the past 60 years.
Four Towers by Eduardo Paolozzi © The Paolozzi Foundation, Licensed by DACS 2006
1962
GMA 978
The 1960s brought a new approach to sculpture for Eduardo Paolozzi. Abandoning the rough and coarse appearance of the surfaces of his earlier bronzes, he started to use prefabricated parts made from aluminium. Here, Paolozzi draws on the modernist tradition of “ready-made” parts in sculpture as well as on the ideal of the artist as an engineer: He distances himself from the notion of the artist's personality being expressed by his work.
1955
GMA 1349
The scene depicted in this painting is based on cityscapes from Runcorn and Widnes, on the river Mersey. Although Lowry's paintings may at first seem naïve, they are rigorously composed and intricately patterned. For example, the two chimneys on the building in the foreground echo the two industrial chimneys behind. The arched roof of the church rhymes wittily with both the lamppost beside it and the domed roof on the horizon. Lowry's famous 'matchstick' people populate the scene, while the narrow range of tones evokes what Lowry called the 'apocalypse of grime.'
1919
GMA 2465 B
This print depicts Beckmann himself greeting a disfigured soldier who has returned from the war. He beckons towards the left in order to guide him, like the viewer, through the next nine scenes of the portfolio. These show the reality of life in postwar Germany. In the background are war veterans on crutches and a female figure who may be a prostitute or a war widow wearing a veil. The dog in the foreground refers to Cerberus, the mythical creature who guards the gates of Hell.
1997
GMA 4320
This work is one of a series in which the artist was inspired by crime scenes, after seeing a display in the Police Museum in Glasgow. The display consisted of drops of blood on pieces of paper. Its label explained how it was possible to measure the drops and so calculate what had caused them. Borland was interested in how an entire scenario could be constructed from such minimal information. The photographs in this piece recall the style of police photographs that objectively record a crime scene, while the melons remind us of human flesh. Melons are also often used in the making of films for shooting practice.
2000
GMA 4340 C
This is the right-hand panel of a triptych. In the scene, a supermarket has been converted into a large greenhouse so that people can be self-sufficient and grow their own food. Outside, fruit trees and vegetables are growing where the supermarket car park used to be. Children play happily in the river, showing a balance of work and recreation. The painting shows a lifestyle that is an attainable and preferable alternative to contemporary society. The simple, clear writing style is based on the typeface of captions in Ladybird educational books for children.