David Bradley Armstrong (May 24, 1954 – October 26, 2014) was an American photographer based in New York.
Armstrong first exhibited his work in 1977 and had one-person shows in New York City, Boston, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Zurich, Düsseldorf, Lisbon, Munich, and Amsterdam. His work was included in numerous group museum exhibitions including Visions from America: Photographs from The Whitney Museum of American Art, 1940-2001 in 2003, Emotions and Relations at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 1998, and the 1995 Whitney Biennial.[1][2]
Personal life
Armstrong was born in 1954, in Arlington, Massachusetts, one of four sons of Robert and Irma Armstrong.[3] He graduated from the Satya Community School, an alternative high school in Lincoln, Massachusetts, where he met Nan Goldin at the age of 14.[4] David openly identified as gay.[5] On October 26, 2014, at the age of 60, he died in Los Angeles, California due to liver cancer.[3]
Career
Armstrong entered into the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as a painting major, but soon switched to photography after studying alongside Goldin, with whom he shared an apartment.[3] He attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Cooper Union from 1974 to 1978, and he earned a B.F.A from Tufts University in 1988 and Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art in Boston.[6]
During the late 1970s, Armstrong became associated with the "Boston School" of photography, which included artists such as Nan Goldin, Mark Morrisroe and Jack Pierson.[4] Their aesthetic was based on intimate snapshot portraits in saturated color.[4]
Armstrong first received critical attention for his intimate portraits of men, either lovers or friends, in sharp focus.[7] In the nineties, he began to photograph cityscapes and landscapes in soft focus to contrast with the resolution of his portraits. Street lights, electric signs and cars are reduced to a sensual mottled blur, complementing the vividness and tactility of his portraits.[6]
In 1981, Armstrong created a series of black-and-white portraits which he showed at PS1's New York/New Wave exhibition. In 1996, Elisabeth Sussman, curator of photographs at the Whitney Museum, enlisted Armstrong's help in composing Goldin's first retrospective. She gained such respect for Armstrong’s eye, she acquired a few of his pieces for the Whitney permanent collection and he was subsequently featured in the Whitney 1994 biennial.[8]
Although his primary subjects include portraits of young boys and men, Armstrong also released a book of land and cityscapes in 2002, entitled All Day, Every Day.[4]
Landscapes, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 1995[10]
The Silver Cord, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 1997[11]
Emotions and Relations, Hamburger Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany, 1998
Gallerie Barbara Farber/Rob Jurka Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1998
Ugo Ferranti Rome, Italy, 1998
New Photographs, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 1999[12]
Scalo New York, New York City, 1999
Galerie Fricke, Berlin, 1999
Judy Goldman Fine Art, Boston, 1999
Bang Street Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1999
Joao Graça, Lisbon, 2000
Open Studio, Toronto, 2000
Photography in Boston: 1955 – 1985, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts, 2000 (catalogue ISBN0262122294)
New Editions, Marlborough Graphics, New York City, 2000
Faces, Bang Street Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 2000
Cityscapes and Landscapes, Galerie M+R Fricke, Düsseldorf, 2001[13]
Bang Street Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 2001
CITY: Prints and Photographs from the 30s through Today, Brooke Alexander, New York City, 2001[14]
Places and People, L.A. Galerie Lothar Albrecht, Frankfurt, 2001
Building Dwelling Thinking, Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston, 2001
Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, 100 Drawings and Photographs, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 2001 (catalogue ISBN1-880146-34-7)
City Light, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 2002[15]
David Armstrong: All Day Every Day, Scalo Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland, 2002
Visions from America. Photographs from the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1940-2001, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, 2002 (catalogue ISBN978-3791327877)
Recent Acquisitions, Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, 2002
David Armstrong: portraits and other works, early and recent, Galerie M + R Fricke, Düsseldorf, 2003[13]
Flesh Tones: 100 Years of the Nude, Robert Mann Gallery, New York City, 2003[16]
Your Picture on My Wall, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 2004[17]
Likeness: Portraits of Artists by Other Artists, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, 2004[18]
Indigestible Correctness II, Kenny Schachter Gallery, New York City, 2004[19]
Model Boy, Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston, 2006
Some Tribes, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland, 2006[20]
True Romance - Allegorien der Liebe von der Renaissance bis heute, Kunsthalle Wien (Halle 1, Halle 2 im MQ), Vienna, 2007