Born Jaffa, Palestine. (November L932 - April 2014)

Robin HOLLIDAY

Born Jaffa, Palestine. (November l932 - April 2014)

Nationality: British

Educated Cambridge University 1952 - 1958, BA l955, Ph.D. 1959

Research in genetics and cell biology at the following Institutes:

John Innes Institute, Hertford, UK, 1958 - 1965

National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, 1965-1988

CSIRO Molecular Sciences, North Ryde, Sydney, 1988-1997

Innumerable publications in scientific journals, and author of five books. Devised a DNA recombination intermediate, now known as the "Holliday Structure" (or junction).

Elected Fellow of the Royal Society, London, 1976, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, 2005.

Listed in Who's Who, UK and Australia.

Lived in Palestine, UK, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Gibraltar, USA and Australia. Travelled extensively in Europe, North America, India and Japan.

Sculpture

Studied in classes at Hertford and London, 1960 - l975 Plaster, clay, wood, stone and metal From l998 has worked in Sydney, in bronze and mixed media.

Group exhibitions:

Parliament House, l999 - 2000 Darling Park, 2000 - 2007 Renaissance Hotel, 2001 Soho Gallery Sydney, 1999 - present Gallery Aniela, Kangaroo Valley, 2000 - present Gannon House Gallery, Sydney 1999 - 2004 Thursday Plantation Sculpture Park, Ballina. 2001 - 2002 Gallery 460, Gosford, 2002 -present Coles Investment Gallery, Kenthurst, 2002 - present Bell Gallery, Berrima, 2002 Royal Easter Show, Sydney, 2000 -2004 The Forest Gallery, South Durras, 2004-2006 Australia Square, 2004 -2007 Katoomba Fine Art, 2005-present 2005 to 2014 Group sculpture exhibitions at SOHO GALLERIES, Sydney

As well as exhibiting and selling in galleries in and around Sydney, Robin sold bronzes abroad. USA: Seattle, Berkeley (California), Albany (New York state), Texas, and Kentucky. Four in the UK: Cambridge, London, Sussex, Hertford. I have also donated sculptures, for example, to Macquarie University, the Childrens Medical Research Institute, Westmead, and the Royal Society, London.

Robin HOLLIDAY

(1932 -2014)

Robin Holliday was born in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1932, the youngest of four brothers. The family moved to England in 1935, and then in 1939 to Ceylon, where they lived for four years during the war. They were also in South Africa (1 year) and Gibraltar (3 years) He returned to the UK in 1947 and completed his education at Hitchin Grammar School and Cambridge University (1947-1955). His double first class degree in Natural Sciences was followed by a Ph.D. in genetics in 1959. He then worked in the John Innes Institute near Hertford, UK, where he developed the molecular DNA model widely known as the "Holliday structure" or junction. This is a ubiquitous DNA structure formed whenever the breakage and rejoining of chromosomal DNA occurs . From 1962-3 he spent a year at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. In 1965 he moved to The National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, where Peter Medawar was Director.

He continued his research in microbial genetics, but then took up studies of the mechanism of biological ageing, using human cells grown in culture. In 1970 he was appointed head of a new Division of Genetics. This attracted visiting scientists from all over the world: some for its work on DNA recombination and repair, and others to cellular ageing. In 1973 the well known Soviet dissident Zhores Medvedev came to work on animal ageing for a year, but his passport was confiscated, and he continued his research at Mill Hill until retirement. With his student, John Pugh, Robin Holliday developed a theory for the control of gene expression during animal development which was based on the chemical modification of DNA. Several years later this became of central importance in the new field of epigenetics. In the 1970s and 1980s he was invited to many scientific conferences around the world: in most European countries, in the USA and Canada, in India, Japan and Australia.

In 1988, following medical advice, he resigned from his position as Head of Division and accepted a senior research position with CSIRO in Sydney, Australia. Instead of running a large laboratory he now had a small one which concentrated on epigenetics and also cellular ageing until he retired in 1997. His interests in ageing had widened and in 1995 he published a book Understanding Ageing, and later Aging the Paradox of life (2007). These explain the biological reasons for ageing.

He had been elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976, Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy in 1995, and then Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2005. He published six books, and about 270 scientific papers. After retirement he took up a long-standing interest in sculpture which initiated, in effect, a second career. His many bronze sculptures are exhibited in and around Sydney, and have also been exported to the USA and UK. His interest in sculpture dates back to the l960s and l970s when he attended classes at an Art School in Hertford, Herts, UK, and also at the Camden Art Centre, Finchley, London. Two of his instructors were the established sculptors Mark Harvey and Jesse Watkins, and three others had worked as assistants to Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Eduardo Paolozzi.

Robin worked with stone, wood, clay and plaster and obtained instruction in art metalwork, and experimented with mixed media. ROBIN HOLLIDAY (1932 - 2014 )

Artist Statement

The sculptural works of Robin Holliday were mainly abstract, but sometimes bridged the gap between representational forms and abstract ones. This is in part due to the influence of organic shapes on the sculpture.

The works created primarily mainly in plaster, built up on wire armatures. By a combination of adding plaster and carving or wearing it down, then achieved the final form. This is then finished with a bronze patina, or cast in bronze. In Sydney an abstract pieces, known as "Diad", had been cast in bronze, at Alan Crawford's foundry and further works have sketches or clay maquettes for further sculptural forms. .

Robin had been influenced strongly by the established British school of abstract sculpture, particularly Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, but also Lynn Chadwick and Reg Butler.

Robin's interest in organic forms were related to the paintings, drawings and prints of Graham Sutherland.

As well as a part-time sculptor, Robin was also an author, and earned his living until retirement in l997, as a scientist, specialising in genetics and cell biology.

After his retirement, Robin had much more time available to be involved in sculpture.

He was a member of the Sculpture Society and exhibited sculptures at the various exhibition organised by the Society or by others from 2005.

Robin Holliday sculptural works have exhibited in Soho Galleries, Sydney Group Sculpture Exhibitions 2005.