Turn, Turn, Turn: A Year in Art, 27 July 2019 – 8 March 2020

The inspiration for this figure came from a visit Russell Clark made to New Brighton, a beach suburb of Christchurch. There he saw a girl standing up with her towel spread open and the wind blowing it against her body. One of several figures Clark modelled in concrete in the 1960s, its style owes much to the influence of the British sculptor Henry Moore whose work Clark greatly admired in the 1950s. Clark was one of Canterbury’s most versatile artists, working variously as a painter, illustrator and sculptor.

The inspiration for this figure came out of a visit Russell Clark made to New Brighton, a beach suburb of Christchurch. There he saw a girl standing up with her towel spread open and the wind blowing it against her body.

One of several figures Clark modelled in concrete in the 1960s, its style owes much to the influence of the British sculptor Henry Moore (1896–1986) whose work Clark greatly admired in the 1950s. Clark was one of Canterbury’s most versatile artists, working variously as a painter, illustrator and sculptor.

Clark was born in Christchurch and studied at the Canterbury College School of Art. He was a commercial artist and illustrator and from 1939 to 1962 he worked for the New Zealand Listener. Clark was an official war artist in the Pacific in 1944. In 1948 he was appointed as a senior lecturer in painting at the University of Canterbury School of Art, where he remained until his death.