Francis Neil Dawson (born 6 November 1948) is a
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
sculptor, best known for his large-scale civic pieces crafted from aluminium and stainless steel, often made using a lattice of natural forms which between them form a geometric whole.
Early life
Dawson was born in
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
in 1948. The son of
Methodist minister
In Christianity, a minister is a person authorised by a church or other religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidanc ...
John Brent Dawson and his wife Florence Emily (),
he grew up in
Masterton,
Petone
Petone (Māori: ''Pito-one''), a large suburb of Lower Hutt, Wellington, stands at the southern end of the Hutt Valley, on the northern shore of Wellington Harbour. The Māori name means "end of the sand beach".
Europeans first settled in P ...
, and
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
, and received his secondary education at
Hastings Boys' High School where he was taught by Russ Williams.
While in the
fourth form, Dawson climbed onto the assembly hall and painted ''April Fool'' in large white letters on the roof. This gave him front page exposure in the ''
Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune
The ''Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune'' was a New Zealand newspaper which published from 1937 until 1999. Covering the Hawke's Bay region, it was based in Hastings.
History
The paper was formed in 1937 from the merger of the Napier-based ''Hawke's Bay ...
'' and he regards this as the "beginning of
iscareer in public art."
Dawson attended the
University of Canterbury (1966–1969) where he studied under Tom Taylor and Eric Doudney.
He gained a Diploma of Fine Arts (Hons) and then spent a year at teachers' college. This was followed, with the help of a
Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council
The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets ...
grant, by a Graduate Diploma in Sculpture from the
Victorian College of the Arts
The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus of the ...
,
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, in 1973. On his return, Dawson drove a truck for four years, and taught drawing and design at Christchurch Polytechnic from 1975 to 1983.
Professional life
Dawson's best-known pieces include ''The Chalice'', a large inverted cone in
Cathedral Square, Christchurch
Cathedral Square, locally known simply as the Square, is the geographical centre and heart of Christchurch, New Zealand, where the city's Anglican cathedral, ChristChurch Cathedral is located. The square stands at the theoretical crossing o ...
, and ''Ferns'', a sphere created from metal fern leaves which hangs above Wellington's
Civic Square. Major overseas commissions include ''Globe'', for the
Pompidou Centre
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
in Paris, and ''Canopy'', for Brisbane's
Queensland Art Gallery
The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away.
The Queensland Art Galler ...
.
Dawson's smaller works often use illusion and such optical patterns as
moiré to achieve their effects. Many of these works are wall-hangings, though stand-alone pieces using such everyday patterned items as the forms of playing cards and
willow pattern
The Willow pattern is a distinctive and elaborate chinoiserie pattern used on ceramic tableware. It became popular at the end of the 18th century in England when, in its standard form, it was developed by English ceramic artists combining an ...
crockery are also among Dawson's works.
Since the late 1980s, Dawson has worked as a full-time sculptor out of the former
Oddfellows' Hall in
Linwood Linwood may refer to:
Places
Many of the place names for Linwood come from the presence of linden trees. Australia
*Linwood, South Australia
* Linnwood, Guildford, 11-35 Byron Road, Guildford, New South Wales
Canada
* Linwood, Ontario
* Linwood, ...
.
Dr
Michael Dunn, Emeritus Professor at the
University of Auckland
, mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work
, established = 1883; years ago
, endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021)
, budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021)
, chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant
, vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
and a former head of
Elam School of Fine Arts
The Elam School of Fine Arts, founded by John Edward Elam, is part of the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. Students study degrees in fine art with an emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach. The schoo ...
, describes Dawson in his book ''New Zealand Sculpture : A History'' as follows:
Dawson's sculpture is individual, unique and easy to recognise. In fact his sculptures flout convention in their lightness of feel, their transparency and their escape from the conventions of earthbound pedestal-based display.
Dunn's book has a photo of ''Ferns'' on its front cover dust-jacket.
![Sydney Harbour Bridge ball](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Sydney_Harbour_Bridge_ball.jpg)
Dawson's sculpture ''Fanfare'' was first suspended from the
Sydney Harbour Bridge
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...
to welcome the 2005 year. The sculpture is made up of 350 reflective
pinwheels arranged in a
sphere
A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is th ...
. Sydney's Lord Mayor,
Clover Moore, subsequently presented the sculpture to the
Christchurch City Council
The Christchurch City Council is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Christchurch is Phil Mauger, wh ...
as a gift. After a long time in storage, it was eventually decided to install ''Fanfare'' next to
State Highway 1
The following highways are numbered 1.
For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads.
For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads.
For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads.
For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads.
For roads numbere ...
, just south of the
Waimakariri River
The Waimakariri River is one of the largest rivers in Canterbury, on the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It flows for in a generally southeastward direction from the Southern Alps across the Canterbury Plains to the Pacific Ocean. ...
Bridge to welcome visitors coming to the city from the north. ''Fanfare'' was officially unveiled on 10 June 2015 by mayor
Lianne Dalziel
Lianne Audrey Dalziel (; born 7 June 1960) is a New Zealand politician and former Mayor of Christchurch. Prior to this position, she was a member of the New Zealand Parliament for 23 years, serving as Minister of Immigration, Commerce, Minister ...
and Dawson.
Dalziel, with reference to ''Fanfare's'' first installation in Sydney and to the destructive Christchurch earthquakes, said at the ceremony:
today feels like it's come home and it's really going to be a big statement about what our city is and what it's going to become
Dawson was more humble and described his artwork as "basically just a ball with some propellers on it".
![Spires 27](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Spires_27.jpg)
In February 2014, Dawson's ''Spires'' was installed in Christchurch's
Latimer Square
Latimer Square is an urban park in central Christchurch, New Zealand. It is located east of the city's centre, Cathedral Square. Many commemorative events take place in Latimer Square. The square lies between the major urban thoroughfares of Glo ...
.
The work was inspired by Dawson's attempts to draw from memory the demolished spire of
ChristChurch Cathedral
ChristChurch Cathedral, also called Christ Church Cathedral and (rarely) Cathedral Church of Christ, is a deconsecrated Anglican cathedral in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It was built between 1864 and 1904 in the centre of the city ...
. It was initially planned that the sculpture would hover over the centre of Latimer Square, along the axis of Worcester Street, so that a visual connection with ChristChurch Cathedral would be achieved. However, its current placement is in the southern half of Latimer Square, not far from the
Cardboard Cathedral. A structural engineer had approached Dawson in 2012 to enquire whether he wanted to design another sculpture for Christchurch, and when he agreed, she donated her time to undertake the structural design for the installation.
Honours and awards
In 1990, Dawson was awarded the
New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.
He received the
Arts Foundation of New Zealand
'The Arts Foundation of New Zealand Te Tumu Toi is a New Zealand arts organisation that supports artistic excellence and facilitates private philanthropy through raising funds for the arts and allocating it to New Zealand artists.
The concept ...
Arts Laureate Award in 2003, and in the
2004 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 2004 were appointments by some of the Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations ...
he was appointed a
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit
The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ren ...
, for services to sculpture.
Notes
References
*
External links
Neil Dawsonin the collection of the
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa TongarewaFerns: a guide to the Wellington Civic Square sculptureMilford galleries Neil Dawson pageUniversity of Canterbury Arts Trail Neil Dawson page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Neil
1948 births
Living people
Artists from Christchurch
People educated at Hastings Boys' High School
20th-century New Zealand sculptors
20th-century New Zealand male artists
21st-century New Zealand sculptors
21st-century male artists
People associated with the Canterbury Society of Arts
Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit