Neil Dawson

Francis Neil Dawson (born 6 November 1948) is a New Zealand artist best known for his large-scale civic sculptures.

Dawson was born in Christchurch in 1948.

The son of Methodist minister John Brent Dawson and Florence Emily (Carlisle), he grew up in Masterton, Petone, and Hastings, 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 roof and painted April Fool in large white letters.

This won him front page exposure in the Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune and he regards this escapade as the "beginning of [his] career 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 grant, by a Graduate Diploma in Sculpture from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, in 1973.

On his return, Dawson drove a truck for four years and in 1975 began teaching drawing and design at Christchurch Polytechnic.

Although he had already participated in a number of group exhibitions, his first solo dealer gallery show was House Alterations at the Brooke Gifford Gallery in Christchurch in 1978.

The following year the Robert McDougall Art Gallery gave Dawson his first major public museum exhibition which he titled Seascape.

Since then Dawson has held solo exhibitions regularly throughout New Zealand and in Australia.

1981 Dawson’s first public outdoor sculpture was installed at the Christchurch Arts Centre.

Titled Echo, it was constructed out of fibre glass tubing and suspended above the quadrangle.

Although it seemed an abstract composition from most angles, when seen from one particular point it formed the outlines of a simple house.

He resigned from the Polytechnic in 1984 to work as a full-time sculptor out of the former Oddfellows' Hall in Linwood.

Dawson's smaller works often use illusion and such optical patterns as moiré to achieve their effects.

Many of these works are wall-hangings, although stand-alone pieces using such everyday patterned items as playing cards and willow pattern crockery are also among Dawson's themes.

Dr Michael Dunn, Emeritus Professor at the University of Auckland and a former head of Elam School of Fine Arts, 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."Dawson has shown regularly with dealer galleries and public art museums since graduating from art school.

1984 Dawson was commissioned by the Bank of New Zealand for a large sculpture outside its Wellington head office.

The 5 metre by 4 metre sculpture titled The Rock was suspended 4 metres in the air in front of the building on its Willis street frontage.

The rock-shaped ‘drawing’ was computer-generated and based on a rock found by Dawson in McCormack’s Bay a few kilometres from his studio.

In 1989 The National Art Gallery in Wellington (now Te Papa Tongarewa) presented a survey exhibition of Dawson’s work Neil Dawson Site Works 1981–1989.

Dawson is primarily known for his large scale civic sculpture.

A selection of these is detailed below:

1989 Dawson was invited to participate in the exhibition Magiciens de la Terre at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

The curator Jean-Hubert Martin intended the exhibition to offer a ‘correcting perspective’ on Euro-centric programming.

Globe was an 85kg metallic sphere depicting the earth from space.

It was suspended 25 metres above the courtyard outside the Pompidou which created considerable logistical problems.

1992 Throwback was installed in Albert Park behind the Auckland Art Gallery as a commission by the gallery to commemorate its centenary in 1988.

1994 Horizons was commissioned by Alan Gibbs as one of the first large-scale sculptural works that make up Gibbs Farm, the largest sculpture park in the Southern hemisphere.

The BNZ moved its head office to Auckland in 1998, and some time after that The Rock was moved to its current site on the Willeston Street side of the building.

1998 Ferns was commissioned by the Wellington Sculpture Trust.

Dawson cut 11 fern shapes and formed them into a sphere 3.4 metres in diameter and suspended it above Wellington’s Civic Square.

2001 Chalice was commissioned to mark the 150th anniversary of Canterbury's foundation.

This 18 metre high inverted cone was sited near the Christchurch Cathedral to reflect the spire.

Dawson described the installation as ‘a three-dimensional life-sized drawing’ The work was removed after the Christchurch earthquake in 2010 and reinstalled in 2021.

The work was taken down in 2015 and a new stainless steel version installed three years later.

Ferns is often used as a visual symbol for Wellington and is recognised as a city icon.