KEY POINTS:
Ron Stenberg is one of those artists finally achieving quiet acclaim in his late 80s, even though he's been painting, drawing and teaching for many decades.
Stenberg has never been swayed by art fashion, and as this chronological bio-tribute reveals, his life has been modest, busy, sensible. A
few of our artistic drama queens could have learned something from his style.
Stenberg, born in Morningside, Auckland, in 1919, is the last surviving male member of the Rutland Group, an important amateur artists' association which ran from 1935-58, named after the building which housed the first Elam Art School when it was a high school.
Stenberg, of Scandinavian lineage, opted to attend Elam from 12, where he studied under A.J.C. Fisher and John Weeks, before moving to work for Farmers just before his 14th birthday. There, he juggled "back-breaking" manual work with catalogue and sign illustrating.
How wholesome those times seem, as described here, where young Ron enjoyed table tennis competitions, and drew cartoons for the Sports Post in Wellington and the Eight O'Clock in Auckland.
Stenberg served in the Army during World War II, but not in the front line because of health concerns. Instead, he worked as a mapping instructor, and the major event of his war seems to be marriage to Dorrie in 1943, and his election to the restricted ranks of the Auckland Society of Arts.
After the war, he set up advertising agency Newson Stenberg, which grew to become a big player, handling major accounts such as Fisher & Paykel and Rothmans. It wasn't enough. In 1954, the Stenberg family set off for Scotland, only to find he had been awarded the Carnegie Travelling Scholarship, which meant Stenberg had to return to New Zealand for two years.
By 1960, the call of the Highlands was too strong to ignore, and the Stenbergs settled in Dundee where he became professor of painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, and a prolific book illustrator.
Dorrie died in 1983, and Stenberg retired the following year.
He travelled, painted, drew. He exhibited in Scotland, and at the Ferner Gallery in Parnell. He returned to live in Auckland in 1991, and the Mairangi Bay Arts Centre staged a retrospective of his paintings the following year. In 1996, he took a friend, Carolyn Quinn, to Scotland, where he had a heart attack and proposed. She accepted.
There were more shows: a big Stenberg retrospective in 2000; a Rutland Group reunion in 2002; a book about the group, written by the same authors as this biography; a 2004 book about Stenberg's work by art historian Leo King; and five Stenberg works held by Auckland Art Gallery. And he's still drawing every day, at the age of 88.
Stenberg's life, especially his years in Scotland, was undoubtedly richer in experience than you'll read about in this A-Z account, which is so respectfully told it teeters on the brink of being a homage.
But maybe that's what Stenberg deserves. A fine artist, a decent man, much loved by his friends and family. Any flaws are ignored. It's not that kind of book.
But more direct quotes from the man himself would have made it a more dynamic read; after all, the title does say, "Ron Stenberg Talks To".
At the end of the book's print section, Stenberg says, "I have been drawing for 75 years and am still learning ... I have never been interested in style or the fashion of the day."
The 110 pages that follow, showing reproductions of his work from 1932 to last year, prove that Stenberg's gift was tenacity combined with sheer dogged talent.
