John Armstrong at Piano Nobile

I went to the opening of this fascinating show last night. Although inevitably a small selection is all that can be squeezed in to a private gallery, the quality of what was on offer was high. One detected the guiding hand of Jonathan Gibbs, who is such an Armstrong expert. There is a nice hardback catalogue, with text by Julia Fischel, which I shall read with interest. The gallery has an excellent tradition of producing serious hardback catalogues, which do it great credit.

As for the art, the neutral observer might struggle to like every picture, but they should certainly find work to admire and to respect. Armstrong was an unusual, but clearly serious artist. Hard to characterise, one might think in terms of Edward Wadsworth and Tristram Hillier as sharing at least some characteristics.