Bob Walls

Who is Bob Walls?

Robert “Bob” Guy Walls was a painter born in Upper Hutt, New Zealand.

After finishing his education at Wellington College, Walls worked for the Union Steamship Company. He spent 17 years employed by the shipping company, including 12 years at sea as a purser on ships trading mainly between New Zealand and Canada, and as shipping representative in Tonga and the Cook Islands. It was during this time that he began painting as a hobby.

Walls arrived in London in 1960, and subsequently studied at the Chelsea School of Art. His first solo exhibition was in 1964 at the Drian Galleries in London. He painted full-time for many years, along with some lecturing and teaching.

By the 1970s Walls was finally obliged to obtain employment to ease the insecurity of living off an artist’s income. He worked briefly at the Foreign Office, and then at the British Museum. Here, he worked as a curator until 1992 in the Prehistoric and Romano-British Departments, among other things being involved with arrangements for the famous Lindow Man and in displaying the Vindolanda Tablets, the earliest written materials yet found in Britain. Walls held many exhibitions in Europe, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, and his works are in numerous collections both public and private, including those of the Contemporary Art Society and the New Zealand National Gallery.