80
48
Arthur Armstrong RHA (1924-1996)
Glendalough
Oil and plaster on board, 76 x 91.5cm (30 x 36”)
Signed
Provenance: From the collection of Dr. &Mrs. J.B. Kearney and their sale in these rooms, December 2007,
Cat. No. 60
Exhibited: Oireachtas Annual Exhibition, 1968, Cat. No. 32, where it was awarded the Douglas Hyde gold
medal
Arthur Armstrong exhibited this work under the title
Gleann dá Loch
at the Oireachtas Exhibition, 1968
where it was awarded the Douglas Hyde Gold Medal (see letter) for an Irish Historical painting. Arm-
strong had previously been awarded a travel scholarship by CEMA in 1957 and in 1967 he became prize-
winner at the international exhibition in Gibraltar.
After six years living in London, Armstrong returned to Ireland in 1962. He often visited the area of
Glendalough with his friends George and Madge Campbell when they were in Ireland during the sum-
mer months. Both artists had an affinity with ancient sites, which led Armstrong to move away from
interiors and to focus in the elemental rawness of the Irish landscape. The monastic sites of the Aran
Islands and Glendalough were a constant source of inspiration for the artist till his death in January 1996.
A popular visitor destination, Glendalough is home to an early Christian monastic settlement founded by
St. Kevin in the 6
th
century. Armstrong’s long association with Glendalough began with the appearance of
the theme in the mid 1960’s at his solo shows at the Richie Hendriks Gallery. Variations on the theme
were exhibited in Spain, Cork and Dublin throughout the 1970’s.
In the 1960’s Armstrong had a studio in Parliament Street where he became preoccupied with working
with plaster. The raised -relief dimension in his work was a direct response to his concern with land
erosion. Stripped of modernization such as electricity poles, Armstrong wished to depict his landscapes
as he imagined them millions of years ago. This work like many others from this period are viewed from
the land looking out to the sea or a lake. In the foreground the viewer is faced with dramatic incised
headstones leading to a calm blue lake. On his return visits to Glendalough, Armstrong observed small
changes in the landscape and he responded to these variations by recording each one, which was a con-
tinuation of the one before. In an earlier work,
Glendalough
, 1965 (RTE collection), the headstones are
smaller and the hills frame the scenic lakes.
In an interview in the Irish Times, 1972, Armstrong explained his gesso paintings, “I like working very
large…I’m using plaster and there’s a strict time limit. There’s about an hour you have to work before your
plaster sets hard…. landscape is something that has evolved slowly; the way lichen grows on rocks has
taken years and years to form. I see landscape as a texture; I see elements of water, rocks and that sort of
thing. I see it as a sort of basic landscape before people moved in.”
Karen Reihill
Currently researching Gerard Dillon & Friends
€3,000 - 5,000
