Tempera on board
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-armstrong-665" aria-label="More by John Armstrong" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Armstrong</a>
Icarus
Purchased 1941
abstraction
animals: actions
animals: features
astronomy
classical myths: gods and heroes
danger
destruction
Earth
emotions, concepts and ideas
figure
flying
from recognisable sources
globe
Icarus
Icarus - winged globe
island
mythological
objects
religion and belief
scientific and measuring
sea
seascapes and coasts
symbols and personifications
universal concepts
wing
<p>Icarus flew too close to the sun, so that his wings, made of wax, melted, and he crashed into the sea and drowned. Armstrong made this painting at the beginning of the second world war, and imagined the world to be like Icarus on the edge of disaster, with wings already damaged.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting tempera board
5 June 2017 – 25 November 2017
2017-11-25
5 June 2017 – 3 September 2017
2017-09-03
2017-06-05
Atkinson Art Gallery (Southport, UK)
16 September 2017 – 25 November 2017
2017-11-25
2017-09-16
Penlee House Gallery & Museum (Penzance, UK)
2017-06-05
John Armstrong: Dream and Reality
Loan-out
14 October 2017 – 31 January 2021
2021-01-31
14 October 2017 – 31 January 2021
2021-01-31
2017-10-14
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2017-10-14
Modern Art and St Ives
Collection based display
Icarus
support: 533 × 375 mm
frame:660 × 510 × 70mm
Purchased 1941
<p>Icarus flew too close to the sun, so that his wings, made of wax, melted, and he crashed into the sea and drowned. Armstrong made this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> at the beginning of the second world war, and imagined the world to be like Icarus on the edge of disaster, with wings already damaged.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05257</b>	ICARUS 1940
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘JA [in monogram] 40’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 21×14 3/4 (53·5×37·5).
<br/>Purchased from the Leicester Galleries (Knapping Fund) 1941.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> <i>United Artists</i>, R.A., January–March 1940 (1217); C.A.S., <i>British Painting Today,</i> Provincial Tour, 1940–2 (22).
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Studio</i>, CXXVIII, 1944, p.57; Hesketh Hubbard, <i>A Hundred Years of British Painting </i>1851–1951, 1951, pl.116.</p>
<p>The artist wrote (20 October 1959) that ‘“Icarus” has always been a symbol to me of the world flying too close to the sun of knowledge and getting destroyed in the process. The version in the Tate was painted earlier (I think) than the one reproduced in Arthur Howell's book.’</p>
<p>The second version is reproduced in colour in <i>The Meaning and Purpose of Art</i> by Arthur R. Howell, 1957, facing p.170, and shows the same central element of a cracked globe on the end of a pole, but this time without wings and surrounded by shattered fragments. The sea is suggested only in the background instead of forming part of the foreground as in No.5257. A later version was exhibited at the R.A., 1961 (564), as ‘Icarus 1961’ (repr. <i>Royal <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a> Illustrated</i>, 1961, p.64) and others at the Molton and Lords, November 1963 (21, 23–5).</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I</p>
<p></p>
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Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction animals: actions animals: features astronomy classical myths: gods and heroes danger destruction Earth emotions, concepts and ideas figure flying from recognisable sources globe Icarus Icarus - winged globe island mythological objects religion and belief scientific and measuring sea seascapes and coasts symbols and personifications universal concepts wing