JOHN ARMSTRONG, SURREALISM England 1893 - 1973
Into the Deep
Tempera on panel
Dimensions: 53.20 cm * 73.00 cm
Into the Deep foreshadows John Armstrong's paintings of the 1950's in which he began to explore the conflict between pattern and tactile form (the way in which volumes are described in space). For Armstrong, to whom natural objects should only be seen in their form and relationship in colour and design freed from their sentimental associations, the advance towards abstract art was inevitable. The material qualities which attract me to particular objects are those of convexity, concavity and flatness…the representation of objects seen or imagined is necessary to me not for the objects themselves but for certain of their material qualities or their power of emotional suggestion. The tempera surface of Into the Deep cannot be pinpointed in space. He appears, at this stage, not to have been greatly interested in the difference between abstract and figurative painting. (1) 1. Quoted by Annette Armstong in her introduction to the 1989 Exhibition Catalogue, 1893 John Armstrong 1973, Ewan Mundy & Celia Philo, page 3

Mrs. John Armstrong
The Mayor Gallery, 1986


London, Unit 1, 1934
Portsmouth, Portsmouth City Museum and Art Gallery, Unit 1, May - July 1978, number (J.A.2)
London, Mayor Gallery, British Surrealism Fifty On, March 1986, number 12, illustrated page 31
Leeds, Leeds City Art Galleries, Surrealism in Britain in the Thirties, October-December 1986, catalogue number 93, illustrated page 140
Finland, Retretti Art Centre, Surrealism, May -September 1987
Chichester, The Tudor Room, The Bishop's Palace, Sea, Sail and Shore, Festival Exhibition, June-uly 1991, number 22
Aldeburgh Festival Exhibition, Peter Pears Gallery, 9 -24 June 2006, catalogue number 5

Exhibition Institution/Venue People From To
The Poetry of Crisis, British Art 1933-1951 Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries
November 2006 November 2006
The Leicester Galleries Loan: Aldeburgh Festival Exhibition June 2006 Aldeburgh Festival
June 2006 June 2006
Egg Tempera Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries
January 2013 June 2013

Herbert Read, Unit 1, The Modern Movement in English Architecture, Painting and Sculpture, Cassell and Company, London 1934, illustrated page 45, plate XVIII
Leeds, Leeds City Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, Surrealism in Britain in the Thirties, 1986, catalogue number 93, illustrated page 140
Retretti Art Center exhibition catalogue, Surrealism, 1987, page 138