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DAVID ARMITAGE
David Armitage
Born: Tasmania
Lives UK
Education: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
David Armitage moved to New Zealand 1967. Six years later a survey exhibition of his work toured the public galleries of New Zealand.
Since 1976 David Armitage, mostly in collaboration with his wife Ronda, has illustrated some 20 picture books, one of them, The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch has been described as a 'modern classic'.
One of David's most celebrated exhibitions was inspired by the experience of listening to classical music in a cathedral setting and the collection of large paintings went on view at Guildford Cathedral. This experience has culminated in the epic Tod und Verklärung Death and Transfiguration, a reference to Strauss -exhibition no.1.
David Armitage's prominence as one the UK's leading abstract painters was cemented last year when he was asked to participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate and, alongside Turner Prize winner Mark Lechey proposed that This House Believes that Conceptual Art 'Just Isn't Art'. They were opposed by, among others, celebrated contemporary art critic and Turner Prize judge Matthew Collings and The Guardian's art critic Adrian Searle. The event took place on 5th November 2009 and, as might have been expected with such a motion, there were fireworks in the Oxford Union that night!
This monumental new series of works by one of the UK's leading colour abstractionists marks a period of maturity for the artist and represents a new level of achievement. The success of this exhibition lies in the cohesion achieved despite the artist's huge range of interests and preoccupations. Subjects range from still life and interiors to shrines, plant life and music. The result is a display of variety, spontaneity and shifting light and yet it is overwhelmingly about one thing – colour.
"David's ambition is to create paintings that are loved and lived with, that contribute to daily life. There is a darkness to them, often, an emotional complexity - but he always speaks of pleasure of colours, of brush marks, of a wordless engagement with the richness of paintings and objects....or, as somebody once said (or something rather like it) 'painting is about painting, everything else is about everything else." Alan Woods Writer/Critic


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