50.8 × 76.2 cm
(20 × 30 inches)
Signed and dated lower left
No. 440
The Square is one of Armstrong's most haunting urban paintings. On the right, sunk into shadow, a sculptural group appears to show a satyr pursuing or embracing a woman, while the building behind it is cracked and decayed. Across the square the café awnings remain cheerful, brightly coloured posters cover the walls and the tables and chairs are still set out. Yet there is nobody there.
The unsettling character of the painting lies precisely in the fact that nothing has happened. We cannot tell whether some catastrophe has already occurred or whether the silence anticipates one. The seductive colour of the café and the gathering darkness transform an apparently ordinary Mediterranean square into something psychologically much less secure.
Armstrong's deserted spaces and fragments of antique sculpture inevitably recall Giorgio de Chirico and reveal his knowledge of European Surrealism. Yet Armstrong resisted being described simply as a Surrealist. His paintings are more often allegorical than irrational, bringing objects together not to destroy meaning but to multiply it.
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