Russell Clark
Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1905, d.1966
Japanese Planes, Rekata Bay, Santa Isabel, 1945
- 1945
- Watercolour
- N. Barrett bequest collection, purchased 2010
- 504 x 640mm
- 2010/020
- View on google maps
Tags: airplanes, beaches, disasters, people (agents), pilots, sand, soldiers, sons (people), symbols, trees, wars
Russell Clark spent nine months as an official war artist in the Pacific in 1944. He served mostly in the Solomon Islands, where he recorded the action against Japanese forces. Rekata Bay had been an occupied Japanese Imperial Navy seaplane base from 1942 until 1943, when a repeated bombing campaign by US forces ultimately forced their abandonment of the base. Pictured here are the wrecked aircraft left behind.
(Te Wheke, 2020)
Exhibition History
Related
Notes
Japanese Planes, Rekata Bay, Santa Isabel by Russell Clark
This article first appeared as 'Wings of war' in The Press on 21 September 2012.
Notes
Artists in Uniform or not just another visit to an art gallery on a wet Sunday afternoon
Following on from the article appearing in todays Press on Russell Clark's Japanese Planes, Rekata Bay, Santa Isabel, 1945 it's interesting to see some film footage of Clark, and others, discussing art in 1944 which you can view here.
Notes
The beach
It seems like an age ago when Russell Clark's Japanese Planes, Rekata Bay, Santa Isabel, 1945 was purchased for the permanent collection way back in July 2010, before this town was turned on its head. One bright note is that it did make it onto the Gallery walls for a short period before our forced closure.