Alan Pearson


Alan Robert Pearson was a neo-expressionist painter who lived in New Zealand and, in his later life, Australia.

Life and work

Pearson was born on 23 August 1929 in Liverpool, England, and moved to Australia in 1951 and then New Zealand in 1954. He studied at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts from 1957 to 1959, graduating with a Diploma of Fine Arts in 1960, and then lived most of his life in Christchurch, before moving to Australia in 2000. Pearson became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1979.
Throughout his career, Pearson exhibited in public and private art galleries across New Zealand and Australia, including a retrospective, Heaven and Blood, at Christchurch Art Gallery in 1999. His work is held in private and public collections and he has been the subject of several publications.
Pearson is known for his expressive and gestural paintings that encapsulate a passionate demeanour and love of music, landscape and people. Pearson painted portraits of many of his friends, family and colleagues. He also chronicled and immortalised himself in numerous self portraits, scrutinising the artist's psyche. In describing his relationship with his sitters, Pearson said in an interview in 2010:
"I'm looking into the inner person, talking with the individual and discovering a collection of inner thoughts which come together in their face."

Pearson died in Noosa, Queensland, Australia, in 2019.

Awards