Art
People stream out of every corner of a smoky city in Going to the Match, a 1953 painting by the renowned master of matchstick figures LS Lowry. Everyone seems compelled by a magnetic attraction, approaching the football ground as if it contains the holy grail or a UFO. And Lowry shows us why this game looms so large in their lives. What else have they got? Grey chimneys hang in the milky air above a landscape of dreary toil. The dearth of colour is shocking. But the crowd are all individuals: women and men, workers and clerks, all inspired by the common passion that turns a Saturday afternoon into a supercharged special time. This is why football became the people’s sport. Jonathan Jones
