Artist Info
Robert MacDonald
Robert MacDonald was born in 1935, much of his early life was spent in rural communities, as a war-time evacuee on Somerset farms and, from the age of 10, in the New Zealand back country. His family emigrated to New Zealand in 1945 and lived on the Northland Peninsula where there was a considerable Maori presence. Maori carving as well as the mediaeval carvings he saw as a boy in Somerset churches were his earliest artistic interests.
MacDonald trained as a journalist in New Zealand but studied painting at the Royal College of Art and printmaking at the Central School of Arts & Crafts when he returned to Britain in 1958.
He had early success in 1960 when one of his first etchings was selected for a prestigious exhibition of 25 British Printmakers shown in the USA. Since then, his prints have been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally in Brussels, Holland, USA, Germany, Pakistan and New Zealand. His prints are held in a number of public collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum.