Explore: John Armstrong

(1893 - 1973)

John Armstrong, painter, was born in Hastings, Sussex, and educated at St John’s College, Oxford. He attended St John’s Wood Art School both before and after the First World War. Armstrong was influenced by the Italian Surrealist Giorgio de Chirico, whose work was exhibited in London in 1928. In 1933 Armstrong became a member of Unit One, a group that included Barbara Hepworth, Tristram Hillier, Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson and Edward Wadsworth, and which exhibited at the Mayor Gallery, London, in 1934. In 1966 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. A retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Royal Academy in 1975. His work is included in many major public collections including the Tate Collection and the Arts Council.