Armstrong - Doomsday Calendar

Title: Doomsday Calendar
Artist: ZB Armstrong, B 1911 D 1993
Year: c. 1990’s
Size: 15 3/4" x 10 1/2"
Medium: Cardboard, Permanent Markers
Framed: 16” x 20” Black Wood Frame with Glass

ZB Armstrong Visionary Artist B 1911 D 1993 Thomson, Georgia Doomsday Calendar Double-Sided 1989 Signed and dated Marker on cardboard Excellent condition Image is 10 1/8" w x 11 3/4" h Frame is 16" w x 16" h x 2" d Soon after his wife’s death in 1969 Armstrong went to work as a foreman in a local box factory and supplemented his earnings there by constructing benches, tables and cupboards. Three years later he had a transforming vision in which an angel appeared before him proclaiming God’s message that ‘Our time has gone to waste… judgment day will come and what hour only He [God] knows.’ After this experience Armstrong became reclusive and preoccupied with time, the Book of Revelation and the making of elaborate calendars designed to predict the exact time and date of the Day of Judgment. These would transform, nourish, define and testify to his faith and pointed out the direction an Individual’s personal and spiritual lives should take. Armstrong produced over 1,500 works, creating them in series and refining his formats. The calendars consist of complex pathways and grids drawn in black, red and blue permanent marker and encircling his constructions. Armstrong called this effect ‘taping with time’. This linear wrapping or winding connects him to Afrocentric traditions. The process is meditative and illuminating, and in the process he apparently left his everyday state of mind, transforming his structures into spiritually charged icons. Any found object, from a rubber band to a mailbox, fitted Armstrong’s vision and he was often seen scavenging in the streets pulling along a wooden box in which to put his finds. He constructed boxes, lids, compartments, inserts and handles, adding to the dimensions and making irregular surfaces and angles. Some of the components he used are circular or clocklike and he often included dials and notched pegs to mark the passing of time. Many of the objects are painted white and then transformed with words or abbreviations giving directions. He marked the top, bottom, side, front and back and he labeled inside, outside and on each insert or component. Months, days, years, both written and numbered, are wrapped methodically. The visual power of this technique is astonishing. There is no disconnection, no beginning, no end. Armstrong ritually wove his marks, integrating past, present and future into the here and now. https://www.larochecollections.com/zb-armstrong-introduction