September 1, 2008 14:34

Major exhibition for NME cartoon legend

Ray Lowry also worked with The Clash

Legendary NME cartoonist Ray Lowry is to showcase a retrospective exhibition of his career this month (September 2008).

The Lancashire-born artist contributed to the magazine during the '70s and '80s, and was best known for the hilariously-angry comic strip 'Only Rock'n'Roll'.

Lowry also contributed to magazines including Punch, Mayfair and Private Eye, as well as creating the legendary sleeve art for The Clash's 'London Calling' album.

Now, after years out of the limelight, Lowry is staging his first exhibition. Opening September 12 at the See Gallery, Rawenstall, Lancashire, the exhibition features work from the past 40 years, as well as his later work as a seminal painter of urban landscapes – following on from his namesake LS Lowry (no relation).

Critic Simon Frith said of Lowry: "His obsession is rock'n'roll authenticity, which he rarely finds, and his search for it means a search through the language of rock, through the words and attitudes that are used to sell and make sense of it."

Of his inspiration as a child, Lowry himself said: "Most of my friends and I showed little artistic or academic promise but cared fanatically for the most arcane areas of the holy rock n'roll thunder which had crashed down upon us out of nowhere."