Dead Church

John Armstrong (1893 - 1973)

Southampton City Art Gallery

1941

Southampton holds a significant cluster of British Surrealist paintings and drawings but this is the first work by Armstrong to enter the collection. Armstrong was an important, influential and highly original artist associated with the British Surrealists. He was a member of Paul Nash's progressive Unit One in 1933 which promoted both abstract constructivism and surrealism. This painting was created during his time as an official war artist. His wartime landscapes of bombed buildings exemplified by Dead Church became increasingly transformed into places of ruin and desecration, signifying the ultimate sacrifice of war. The broken, brick-like strokes suggest that the fabric of the hollow church is paper-thin, about to be blown away like leaves in the wind.

• Medium: tempera on board
• Dimensions: 34.3 x 43.8cm
• Art Fund Grant: £3700 ( Total: £11,000)
• ArtFunded in: 2010
• Vendor: Mayor Gallery

Provenance

Artist's estate; Mayor Gallery.

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