Bob Kerr is a Wellington-based painter, illustrator, and author with an interest in New Zealand\’s history and landscape. He has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand. Three significant exhibitions have looked at the landscape through the eyes of New Zealand scientists: Some of The Field Evidence (the life and work of Leslie Adkin). Charles Fleming Hears The Kokako Sing which visualised Fleming’s campaign to save the native forest of the Mamaku Plateau and The Man Who Moved New Zealand which examined the geologist Harold Wellman’s work on The Alpine Fault. Three other important exhibitions have looked at the period of the First World War. The Rua Expedition dealt with the police invasion of Rua Kenana’s community at Maungapohatu in 1916. Number One Field Punishment examined Archibald Baxter’s opposition to military conscription and Hell Here Now – The Galipoli Diary of Alfred Cameron visualized Alfred Cameron\’s experiences at Gallipoli in 1915. A recent exhibition The Three Wise Men of Kurow looked at how Girvan McMillan, Andrew Davidson and Arnold Nordmeyer\’s experience of living in Kurow during the depression of the 1930\’s resulted in the 1938 Social Security act.
His paintings are held in private collections in New Zealand and overseas. Perhaps his best-known painting is on the cover of Michael King’s Penguin History Of New Zealand.
