Robert Nettleton Field (1899 - 1987)

was an artist, sculptor, potter and art teacher.

Born in Bromley, Kent, England, he entered the Royal College of Art in London in September 1919 and spent five years there, gaining an associateship of the Royal College in decorative painting in 1922 and a second associateship in sculpture in 1924. The presence in class of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore and exhibitions of modern sculpture around London helped steer Field to a modernist course as an artist.

He emigrated to New Zealand on the La Trobe Scheme in 1925 and took up a teaching position at the Dunedin School of Art, a department of King Edward Technical College. At first teaching sculpture and drawing full time, by 1930 he was also taking part-time groups for outdoor sketching, life drawing, painting and linocuts. Field's teaching style was informal but his dreamy manner and bursts of enthusiasms sparked the older students' imaginations and his own work proved a great influence. After marrying in 1928, he and his wife began to host a group of young friends from the college at their home, calling themselves the 'Six and Four Art Club' and organising their own exhibitions.

Between 1928 and 1932 Field painted portraits, landscapes and still lifes in pure, jewel-like colours which demonstrated how colour, as well as line, form, design and materials, could be enjoyed for its own sake. His direct carvings in stone and general spirit of experimentation also represented a modernist reaction against Victorian naturalism. His most widely reviewed impact on the contemporary art scene was made as a guest exhibitor with The Group in Christchurch in 1931, when Tosswill Woollaston resolved to become his student.

In 1945, at the age of 46, he finally received due recognition of his outstanding qualifications when he become head of the Art Department at Avondale College, Auckland. There he created the first ceramic training centre in New Zealand, his pupils including Barry Brickell, Len Castle, Patricia Perrin and Peter Stichbury.

Field returned to painting and sculpting after his retirement in 1960 and maintained a spirit of experimentation almost until his death. A resurgence of interest since the early 1980s has seen him recognised as a vital conveyor of modern European ideas on art and art education to New Zealand.

He is represented in the Auckland Art Gallery, Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru, Anderson Park Art Gallery, Invercargill, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Hawkes Bay Museum, Napier, Hocken Library, Dunedin, Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

(Petersen, Anna K. C. 'Field, Robert Nettleton 1899 - 1987'.  Dictionary of New Zealand Biography; McGAHEY, Kate - Concise Dictionary of New Zealand Artists, Painters, Printmakers, Sculptors)

Clearly signed at lower right.

Professionally framed.

Size:
Frame = 580mm wide x 480mm high
Image = 365mm wide x 260mm high