The Black Tower

Maurice Collis (op. cit., pp. 21-22) in his early monograph commented on the artist's use of people in his work and their symbolic presence in his paintings: 'I remembered that his figures often went singly; that if two passed they seldom spoke; that if together on a bench, they sat back to back in silence; that if walking as a couple, they were not chatting; and if in a group, they were wrapped in their own melancholy thoughts. Whey they did stop and converse, like the two principal figures in The Black Tower they spoke of one thing and thought of another. Mostly they glided by with a nervous glance; would elude you and hurry away. In Discord [City of Salford] the mental isolation of the figures is even more noticeable because, on account of their greater size, the expressions on the faces are seen more distinctly. In sum, the majority of Lowry's figures are solitaries, unable to mix with their fellows except casually, and deeply afflicted by their isolation. They are his own reflection as if seen in a distorting mirror, the projections of his mood, his shadows, ghosts of himself, sometimes even becoming direct self-portraits, as in the taller of the two central figures in The Black Tower. Nevertheless, their relevance to the pictorial setting is sufficiently natural for them to have been taken solely for what they purport to be, citizens walking the streets of Manchester. Thus, his paintings are both scenes of contemporary life and psychological statements. This duality adds greatly to their force and permanence. Had they been merely hysterical outbursts, vague abstract symbols of unrest, surrealist apparations or hazy visions without anchorage in reality, the public would rapidly tire of them. But Lowry has never lost control of himself; he has never let his mood run away with him. His reserves of strength and sanity are further proofs of his greatness as an artist'.