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 the 1995 Whitney Biennial, Emotions and Relations at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 1998, and Photography in Boston: 1955–1985 at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln in 2000.
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Personal life
Armstrong was born in 1954, in Arlington, Massachusetts, one of four sons of Robert and Irma Armstrong. He graduated from the Satya Community School, an alternative high school in Lincoln, Massachusetts, where he met Nan Goldin at the age of 14. David openly identified as gay. On October 26, 2014, at the age of 60, he died in Los Angeles, California due to liver cancer.
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. 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.
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.
Armstrong first received critical attention for his intimate black-and-white portraits of men, lovers, and friends, which were shown at PS1's 1981 New York/New Wave exhibition and later published prominently in the monograph "The Silver Cord."
In 1996, Goldin and Elisabeth Sussman, curator of photographs at the Whitney Museum, enlisted Armstrong's help in composing Goldin's first retrospective. Sussman gained such respect for Armstrong’s eye that she acquired a few of his pieces for the Whitney permanent collection, and he was subsequently featured in the Whitney 1994 biennial.
Armstrong’s work has also appeared in publications such as Vogue Paris, L'Uomo Vogue, Arena Homme +, GQ, Self Service, Another Man and Japanese Vogue and he has worked on the advertising campaigns of companies such as Zegna, René Lezard, Kenneth Cole, Burberry, Puma, and Barbara Bui. He once shot editorials for Wonderland, Vogue Hommes and Purple.
Although he is best known today for his portraits of boys and men, Armstrong's first solo show at Matthew Marks Gallery in 1995 was titled Landscapes. He also released a book of land and cityscapes in soft focus, entitled All Day, Every Day.
Publications
with Nan Goldin.A Double Life. Scalo, Zurich/New York 1994, ISBN 978-1-881616-21-4.
The Silver Cord. Afterword by Nan Goldin. Scalo, Zurich/New York 1997. ISBN 978-3-931141-48-6.
All Day Every Day. Edited by Martin Jaeggi, with a conversation by Armstrong and Jaeggi. Scalo, Zurich/New York 2002, ISBN 978-3-908247-56-2.
615 Jefferson Avenue. Edited by Nick Vogelson and Anton Aparin, introduction by Boyd Holbrook. Damiani, Bologna 2011, ISBN 978-88-6208-178-8.
Night and Day. Poem and cover artwork by Rene Ricard. Edition of 1000. Mörel, London 2015, ISBN 978-1-907071-28-7.
Polaroids. Edition of 1000. Mörel, London 2015, ISBN 978-1-907071-41-6.
Exhibitions
Gallery shows
Nan Goldin and David Armstrong: A Double Life, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 1993 (book, see Publications above)
Landscapes, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 1995
The Silver Cord, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 1997 (book, see Publications above)
Galerie Rob Jurka, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1998
Ugo Ferranti, Rome, Italy, 1998
New Photographs, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 1999
Scalo New York, New York City, 1999
Galerie Fricke, Berlin, Germany, 1999
Judy Goldman Fine Art, Boston, 1999
Bang Street Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1999
João Graça, Lisbon, Portugal, 2000
Open Studio, Toronto, Canada, 2000
New Editions, Marlborough Graphics, New York City, 2000
Faces, Bang Street Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 2000
Cityscapes and Landscapes, Galerie M+R Fricke, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2001
Bang Street Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 2001
City: Prints and Photographs from the 30s through Today, Brooke Alexander, New York City, 2001
Institutional group shows
Emotions and Relations, "Five from Boston": Goldin, Armstrong, Mark Morrisroe, Jack Pierson and Philip-Lorca diCorcia, curated by F. C. Gundlach. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 1998 (catalogue: Taschen, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-82287507-4)
Photography in Boston: 1955–1985, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts, 2000 (catalogue, ISBN 978-0-262-12229-0)
Visions from America. Photographs from the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1940–2001, Whitney Museum, New York City, 2002 (catalogue, ISBN 978-3-7913-2787-7)
Recent Acquisitions, Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, 2002
Likeness: Portraits of Artists by Other Artists, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, 2004
True Romance - Allegorien der Liebe von der Renaissance bis heute, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, 2007/08, subsequently Kunsthalle Kiel and Villa Stuck, Munich (catalogue, ISBN 978-3-8321-9049-1)