Armstrong, David B., 1947-1998
Biography
https://web.archive.org/web/20010607235455/http://www.david-armstrong.com/biography.html
Fields and sheep pastures rolled the woodlands back into the rock hills, opening the Housatonic River Valley just wide enough for David Armstrong's adventrues as a boy. On his family's farm in Connecticut, he developed a reverence for the earth and a desire to capture it in his paintings.
From the bitter cold of winter to the heat of summer, David painted outdoors in fields, farms, and woods always working in the landscape to be part of the world he was painting. his paintings exemplify such themes as the raw beauty of nature, the farmland of rural America, and the simplicity of country living.
The list of David Armstrong's achievements is impressive. SINCE 1971, DAVID HAS BEEN REPRESENTED BY THE HAMMER GALLERIES IN NEW YORK CITY, WHERE HE HAS HAD EIGHT "SOLDOUT" ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS. Other exhibits at Hammer Galleries have included a two-artist exhibition (1980), featuring David and John Denver, to benefit the Windstar Foundation -- an organization promoting enviornmental harmony and world peace; and a major exhibition (children's cancer research benefit) in 1987, "Realism: A Continuing American Tradition," with artists Eric Sloane, Bob Timberlake, and Andrew Wyeth. In 1990, the American Farmland Trust Organization, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving our valuable agricultural resources, hosted a benefit exhibition of Armstrong's recent works at the Hammer Galleries.
In 1976, David assisted his friend and mentor, Eric Sloane, with the panorama mural project (75 feet, 3 story) at the National Air and Space museum, Smithsonian Institute, in Washington, D.C. At the early age of 32, Armstrong was honored with a 120-piece exhibition in Pennsylvania's state museum in Harrisburg. Armstrong's works are in major corporate and private collections, including a piece in the private library of former President Bush (a gift to the President from the late Dr. Armand Hammer).
David Armstrong lent his support to the conservation group, Frenchman Bay Conservancy (Ellsworth, ME), by providing a one-man exhibition benefit in Maine in August 1994.
In 1992, a collection of the artist's paintings representing "Vanishing American Craftsman" was exhibited at the Butler Institute of American Art. Following the exhibition, the entire collection of 16 works was donated to Bucknell University by a private art collector. The collection is on permanent display at the Weis Center for Performing Arts, Lewisburg, Pennyslvania. A major 30-year retrospective exhibition opened for two months in June 1995 at the BUTLER INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN ART (Youngstown, Ohio).
CURRENT WORKS BY THE ARTIST CAN BE SEEN AT HAMMER GALLERIES, 33 WEST 57TH STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK. THE DOCUMENTARY PRODUCED BY THE PUBLC BROADCASTING CENTER TITLED, "OUR VANISHING AMERICAN LANDSCAPE, THE WORLD AND WORK OF DAVID ARMSTRONG" AIRED ON EARTH DAY, 1993, AND IS NOW BEING SHOWN ON SELECTED STATIONS NATIONALLY.
My work attempts to present my vision of beauty through ordinary elements of the commonplace. I believe great works of art are not achieved through complicated statements, but rather simple ones, which allow painter and viewer alike to see beneath the surface, to question, and in our individual ways, to attempt an answer to the question of how we integrate our human needs with the natural world. In my pictures I attempt to feel -- a sense of time and place -- a moment of light, movement, and mood reflective of the world around me. In essence, my paintings reflect specific times and emotions of my life.
The Artist died in August 1998, after a lengthy battle with cancer. His legacy continues with the best of his paintings produced as limited edition prints.