Bernard Holman

Bernard Holman (born in Woking, Surrey, England in 1941 and died in Dunedin, New Zealand on 11 September 1988) was an English-born artist who later emigrated to New Zealand to paint and teach.

He graduated from the Kingston upon Thames School of Art in 1961 with a Diploma of Painting with Honours. Holman then spent several years teaching art in secondary schools, before being made visiting lecturer to the art department at his old school and at various other centres in Norfolk. He first exhibited as a student at the Suffolk Gallery and at the Royal Academy Diploma Gallery. Holman exhibited in London and Norfolk, before moving to New Zealand in 1974 where he was appointed to the Otago Polytechnic School of Art. In 1978, he took part in a two-man exhibition at the Otago Art Society and he had a one-man exhibition at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 1981. Holman also took part in the New Zealand Drawing Exhibition in 1982-3 at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. He was head of the painting department at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art until his death.

The Dunedin artist John Z. Robinson was tutored in painting by Holman at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art.

Holman’s work is represented in private collections in England, the Netherlands, the United States of America and New Zealand. The Dunedin Public Art Gallery has three of his works – one acrylic painting on canvas and two drawings.