For a certain kind of painter, painting is a process. Of course, making a painting is necessarily a process, usually one that delivers a finished work. But for some, perhaps many painters, the finished work is less a conclusion than a question. Robert Armstrong tends to see all paintings, not just his own, in terms of the questions they pose.

Hence, his work has consistently incorporated a kind of running commentary on painting. Most obviously, perhaps, he has made works that explicitly address works made in the past, notably during the Renaissance, though not at all because they are historically distanced. Rather he is drawn to the way the painters in any era set about making the pictures they make. And he gravitates towards the residual questions lurking in apparent pictorial coherence: the gaps, the oddities, the tacit assumptions.

Extract from an accompanying text by Aidan Dunne

To coincide with After Mountains, More Mountains, the gallery will host a Publication Launch on Thursday 20 April at 6pm, in collaboration with Dürer Editions of a major new, large format publication on Robert Armstrong’s work, illustrating some 66 paintings from the last 20 years, with a substantial essay by writer Colm Tóibín and a conversation between the artist and critic Aidan Dunne.

Robert Armstrong (b. 1953) lives and works in Dublin. He is a Founder Member of Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin and was Head of Painting at the National College of Art & Design (NCAD) from 2002 until his retirement in 2018, having taught at the college since 1991. He has exhibited regularly in Ireland and abroad for more than forty years. Recent exhibitions include ÖVERGÅNG, A group exhibition in collaboration with Galleri Magnus Karlsson (Stockholm), Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin (2022), Three Distances, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin (2020),Water Mountain – Made in Hong Kong, AVA HKBU, Hong Kong (2019), Robert Armstrong and Joe Hanly, The Print Studio Posters, Temple Bar Gallery & Studios Atrium (2019), Slips and Glimpses, Robert Armstrong and Anna Bjerger, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin (2016).