ART FOR RUGBY S SAKE BONAR DUNLOP

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1 BONAR DUNLOP I work in a manner which makes no concessions to trends or to self conscious idiom, you may say art for rugby s sake! (1975) Bonar Dunlop was a rugby man and an artist. Born in Dunedin, New Zealand, he gained a close knowledge of the game during his childhood which he later developed into striking sculptural forms. He often declared to journalists that he wanted to awaken interest in sculpture among a public probably not previously concerned with 3D representation. Twelve years after his death we are very privileged to be able to display so many of these pieces together for the very first time.

2 THE MAN (Dunlop s work was) conceived as a cross between the battlefield and a ballet (New Zealand Art Critic, Raymond Ward) Beginnings Aged 18 Dunlop left New Zealand for the cultural stimulation of Europe. During the 1930s he studied painting, drawing and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Art,Vienna; Académie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris and Royal Academy Schools, London. Wartime In he volunteered to join the International Brigade in Finland to fight against the Soviet invasion. Unable to return to England due to the Nazi occupation of Norway he enrolled at the Stockholm Academy of Fine Art. In 1942 he succeeded in returning to the UK on foot, horseback and by boat. He joined the RAF and flew as a pilot in operations over North Africa and Italy. Peacetime Dunlop briefly returned to New Zealand after the war before making his home in Sydney, Australia with his wife - dancer, Hilary Napier. Here he made a public war memorial, sculpted portraits and embarked on a career as a commercial artist. The return to Europe In the late 1950s he returned to live in London, illustrating books, advertisements and magazines. Rugby In 1970 he started working on sculpture with an interest in interpreting action in three dimensions. He said at the time that he was looking for new physical combinations in a masculine world of action. In parallel to his rugby figures he also created sculptures of cricketers, footballers and horses as well as portraits and more general figurative work. Retirement Although partly retired after 1980, Dunlop continued to sculpt and sell pieces until weeks before his death, either in terracotta (at his studio in Spain) or in plaster which would then be cast.

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4 THE GAME I am an interpreter trying to catch exciting moments in the game and reproducing them in the round Rugby was to be his great passion - acquired during his New Zealand childhood. He started playing aged 8 and represented his school XV - John McGlashan College, New Zealand. His love of the game developed whilst playing over the years for The British Club in Paris, and then in 1939 for Rosslyn Park. It was in 1975, whilst spectating at a rugby match, that he suddenly gained inspiration for sculpting rugby forms. The line-out caught his artistic eye and that very same evening he made his first rugby sculpture. From then on he viewed the game both as a sculptor and as a player. Many of the sculptures were created from sketches he made while standing on the sidelines watching London teams such as Wasps, Harlequins, and especially Saracens when they played at Southgate. One of his pieces was presented by Prime Minister Muldoon of New Zealand to the USA Rugby Union and others were purchased by the New Zealand government. During the late 1970s Dunlop produced a variety of different commissions of great players and in the early 1980s he created a larger-than-life figure of Gareth Edwards for Cardiff s St. David s Shopping Centre.

5 Bonar Dunlop s Exhibitions: September 1975 Rugby Sculpture. One-man exhibition, New Zealand House Gallery, London (20 pieces) August 1976 Rugby Sculpture. One-man exhibition, Pat Yallup Gallery, Chepstow, Wales February 1977 (Untitled). One-man exhibition, Edinburgh, Scotland (14 pieces) June 1977 Autumn Exhibition. New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington, New Zealand (c.18 pieces) July 1977 (Untitled). One-man exhibition, Arthur Barnett Ltd, Dunedin, New Zealand (18 pieces) 1978 (Untitled). Halifax Building Society, Barnet (24 pieces) 1982 Sport & Movement. One-man exhibition, New Zealand House, London Numerous rugby pieces on permanent display at the Rugby Club, London December 2002 Exhibition of early drawings, Beckel-Odille-Boicos Gallery, Paris, France August 2004 Art for Rugby s Sake. Retrospective exhibition, Museum of Rugby, Twickenham

6 THE ART The tackle offers endless opportunity for figure composition Dunlop often had to justify his work, feeling obliged to claim that sport was artistically acceptable. He saw great advantages in making art inspired by rugby rather than other sports because of the: Huge varieties in physique across the pitch Enormous amounts of body contact Endless combinations of figure composition Unrehearsed and spontaneous movement An amazing variety of figure patterns and combinations A London rugby club President of the time allegedly urged his players to go and see the exhibitions of Bonar s work to see how the physical techniques of the game should be adopted by the physical form. I am trying to portray the rugby game as I see it. I am satisfying my own interests artistic and sporting