PARALLEL LIVES

Imagine a painter whose work rivals the physical impact of Easter Island’s Stone Monoliths, while sharing artistic DNA with Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.

You end up with Alexander Van Armstrong and almost no one else.

This School of London expressionist is best known for giant portrait heads of Mythological figures, and 20th Century American icons.

These densely layered masterpieces are characterized by powerful paint handling, tempered by sophisticated use of chiaroscuro and sfumato. They have nothing in common with Warhol’s portraits of celebrities, nor Chuck Close’s cautious photo realism.

Van Armstrong’s generally sympathetic treatment of subject matter reflects his allegiance to Old Masters like Masaccio and El Greco.

Alexander Van Armstrong is an exact contemporary of Damien Hirst. Each helped to put London’s famous East End art colony on the map.

Both have a history with Charles Saatchi.

Whereas Hirst would embrace the advertising mogul’s patronage, Van Armstrong declined Saatchi’s offer to buy the contents of his last London show.

The artist already had a circle of wealthy patrons privately funding his work, and was not eager to be associated with Saatchi’s Young British Artists.

Arriving in New York in the early 2000s, Van Armstrong hit the ground running. Music mogul, Chris Blackwell gave him the use of a magnificent studio overlooking The Hudson. Film director Spike Lee was one of many celebrity visitors.

At 24 feet wide and 8 feet tall, The King Of Pain is one of the most extreme painting’s of our time. This is the painting that the artist declined to sell to Charles Saatchi.

The King of Pain reprises Francis Bacon’s adoption of the triptych format as a formal device, while preserving much of the poignancy of Bacon’s portraiture, but here on an astonishing scale - 100 times life size.

Spike Lee commissioned a giant portrait head of JOE LOUIS for his 2004 movie, SHE HATE ME, together with several smaller pieces. This kickstarted an ongoing 20 year artistic collaboration. The film director would also commission giant portrait heads of Jack Johnson and Muhammad Ali.

Fast forward 20 years, the same Joe Louis portrait wowed visitors to The Brooklyn Museum’s recent exhibition of Spike Lee’s art collection. The Guardian Newspaper singled out JOE LOUIS 2 as one of the highlights of the show.

Joe Louis 2 features in Lee’s latest movie, a remake of a 1960s Akira Kurosawa crime drama masterpiece, starring Denzel Washington.

While Joe Louis 2 is on the way to becoming an iconic artwork, most people do not know that it is merely the tip of the iceberg. Van Armstrong has produced a body of work that includes upwards of 20 such portraits!

Alexander Van Armstrong paints people. Some of the people in his paintings are black. Some are white. However, there is no grandstanding about race here. Choice of subject matter is determined by the artist’s immersion in mythology and history, and reflects his obsession with tragic heroic archetypes.

Once subject matter is decided upon, this School of London painter’s focus is strictly to do with the alchemy of painting.

How to arrive at convincing non literal likeness. How to convey the existential weight of a human being. How to maintain a degree of poignancy.

Attending to such matters on a scale 100 times larger than life has to count as one of contemporary art’s most astonishing feats.

This is much in evidence if you look closely at Joe Louis 3. It routinely takes 4 months of probing and experiment, together with the accumulation of 40 or more layers of paint to produce such a portrait.

1. As far as American art audiences are concerned, here are images of compelling relevance. Twentieth century American icons like Jack Johnson, Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali are honored as monumental beings pursuing transcendence at the intersection of History and Mythology.

In this eclectic parade they are joined by Mythological figures like Achilles, Agamemnon and Prometheus. Mick Jagger, an honorary American of sorts given his obsession with American blues, joins the procession as does The Last Carthaginian.

2. Van Armstrong’s contribution to the art of portraiture is characterized by an eidetic sense of aliveness. A penetrating but humane spotlight illuminates a diverse procession of historic figures, many of whom impacted America during the 20th century.

There is every reason to believe that an expertly curated selection of some of these works will wow American museum goers.

Frankly, it would make for a fantastic traveling show throughout 2026, a year in which America will want to celebrate its history.

Sebastian Ferretti 

University of Chicago 

March 2026