KEY POINTS:
An exhibition of Keith “Nobby” Clark’s encounters with the funky side of city life late last century has opened at the Auckland City Library. “I had three careers running at the same time,” said Clark, 86, about the diversity of work drawn from his time as an illustrator, writer, graphic designer, art director and painter. From 1953 to 1973, he worked at leading advertising agencies and on national brands, including the characters Ches and Dale in early Chesdale Cheese campaigns. He also produced screen prints for TEAL airline posters and advertisements for Lion Brown beer, Formica and Sanitarium. During the 1980s, he created a series published in the Herald called Encounters with Nobby Clark, which gained a wide following for its quirky pictures and writing about places and characters. The shop fronts and street scenes of Karangahape Rd and Ponsonby, the many paintings of interiors of pubs, strip clubs and the Dominion Wine Lounge in the exhibition are regarded as a valuable record of a bygone era. Clark said his aim was to record a fast disappearing city life. “If you sat in the middle of the road and brought out a drawing book, people would view you as a neutral object and would start telling you things about themselves they never would do ordinarily. So I thought I would record some of these.” In the course of doing so, Clark produced three books - Nobby Clark’s Auckland, Auckland Their Auckland and the still-to-be- published Auckland Memories. Through the 1990s, Clark was guest cartoonist-commentator for the Herald television page. Poor health prevented his attending the exhibition’s opening, which was curated by his son, Simon, principal lecturer in graphic design at AUT University’s School of Art and Design. Nobby Clark and his wife, Maggie, lived in Howick for many years but now live at the Ranfurly Veterans’ Home and Hospital at Three Kings. On the door of his room at the home is a sign saying, “Mr K Clark, British Army” - making clear the fact that he served in the North African deserts during the Second World War. Later, he developed his skill as a draftsman by studying art in France and Germany before coming to Auckland in 1953.
