IT is not often an artist works closely with the Minister for Finance, but anyone who has tuned in to Ruairi Quinn's budge declarations on the news will be familiar with the bottom corner of one of Robert Armstrong's paintings. Taking time out from his negotiations with IBEC to open an exhibition of recent paintings by the artist in the Hallward Gallery, the Minister described him as the "artist laureate" of the Department of Finance, hinting that he wouldn't look too closely at the tax returns on purchases of Armstrong's works.
Spilling out of the packed gallery on to the little patio outside were several people with a Wexford connection: Circuit Court judge, Pat McCartan, who is a Gorey man like Toibin, a longtime supporter of Armstrong's work; and poet Philip Casey. Artists Michael Kane and Robert Ballagh were there, Ballagh chatting to Armstrong's wife Gabby Dowling, who was looking splendidly ethnic after three months working in an artist's residence in Delhi.
The throng, which was given a hint of colour by several of Armstrong's NCAD students, included the ever glamorous documentary maker Aine O'Connor; producer/director of Glen roe, David McKenna; property developer Johnny Ronan; Black Box's Mary Raftery; and veteran opening nighters, Cyril and Jill Forbes and Maureen Cairnduff.