Invocation
1938
Medium
tempera on plywood
Measurements
71.0 × 55.8 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Ian Hicks AM and Dorothy Hicks, 2006
© the Artist's Estate. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images
Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
In 1936 many artists and intellectuals saw General Franco’s overthrow of democracy in Spain as a portent of spreading fascism. John Armstrong became convinced of this when he saw images of Mussolini posted around Rome in 1938. Invocation is a response to what Armstrong feared was the decay of civilisation. A menacing ruin looms against a flat blue sky with a theatricality suggesting the artist’s background in theatre set design. While the disintegrating fresco across the surface of the ruin shows fragments of an Egyptian figure, it can also be read as a crumbling map of Europe and a prefiguration of the Second World War.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in brown paint l.r.: JA 38
Accession Number
2006.492
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Architecture
Subjects (specific)
abandoned buildings destruction (process) murals (general, decorations on wall) rubble ruins