The National College
Fine Art Staff
Robert Armstrong
Head of Painting
Robert Armstrong’s recent paintings are a kind of forensic re-examination of Renaissance and Classical painting, often focussing on apparently insignificant details until they become freighted with a significance that is sometimes ominous. A catalogue with essay by Declan Long, published to coincide with a 2007 exhibition is available from the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery.
Download Afterimages catalogue essay by Declan Long (PDF 17k)
Born in Gorey, in 1953, Robert Armstrong initially took the landscape of his native Wexford and Wicklow as the starting point of his painting practice. In a series of works from the mid 90’s he used photographs of the frozen pond at the Botanic Gardens as a metaphor for an exploration of the possibilities of ‘surface’ in painting. A catalogue with a text Freeze Frames by Aidan Dunne is available at NIVAL.
Later paintings refer to the volcanic landscape of the Aeolian Islands in the Mediterranean. The shimmering, sulphurous heat of that landscape resulted in paintings, which used a different colour register and were further ‘abstracted’ as they derived from individual frames of video footage. A catalogue with text by Catherine Marshall for a three person show with Mary Avril Gillan and Michael Dempsey at the Painting Center New York 1999 is available from NIVAL.
Armstrong has also made video works including Stories Walk based on the ‘Mad Sweeney’ saga’.
Future shows include a group show at Purdy Hicks, London (February 2009) and solo show at Kevin Kavanagh (April 2009).
