The Three Wise Men at the McAtamney Gallery Geraldine

This exhibition at the McAtamney Gallery in Geraldine runs from the 12th of October until the 17th. of November. It includes works from an earlier show at Enjoy Gallery in Wellington and these new works. The three wise men as they were affectionally called were Andrew Davidson, Dr. Gervan McMillan and Arnold Nordmeyer. This video is from the opening and gives some background to the story.

Here are some of the paintings from the show.

To Create a New Society.  120 x 40 cms

"We were fired with a fervent desire to create a new society," wrote Andrew Davidson in his memoir. Their new society was to replace the poverty and unemployment they witnessed in Kurow during the depression of the 1930s.

The Doctors House. 107 x 16 cms

The doctors house still exists in Kurow. It was here the three would meet, discuss and write their vision for their New Society.

Leaving for the conference  52 x 20 cms

Dr. Gervan MacMillian took their ideas for a free medical service to the Labour Party conference in 1934. The paper he presented became party policy.

The trains would make way  36x 25 cms

MacMillian expected the trains in the Waitaki hydro shunting yards to give way to him. He was known for his furious driving around his large practice.

An Act to provide  122 x 37 cms

The health service that the three wrote about around the doctors kitchen table eventually developed into the 1938 Social Security Act. 

The Path to School  193 x 40 cms

With the sudden arrival of  construction workers for the dam and unemployed hoping to get work  Andrew Davidson's Kurow school spilled out into Nordmeyer's church hall, the social hall at construction site, and the totaliser building at the racecourse. It was a lively time in education, Dr. Beeby the director of Education believed in social and economic equality for every child regardless of academic ability and what he called the child centered school rather than the school centred child. Andrew Davidson's first job was often to provide his ragged new pupils with warm clothing from money the Nordy had raised. 

The teacher  13 x 17.5 cms

The Doctor  13 x 17.5 cms

the Minister  13 x 17.5 cms 

At the Willows and At the Doctors kitchen Table - four watercolors.

The McAtamney Gallery is upstairs in the Old Post Office Building 47/49 Talbot St. Geraldine. It is open Thursday to Monday 11am until 3:00pm or by appointment and Tuesday and Wednesday by appointment.

PH: +64 3 69 37 292

E:carolyn@mcatamneygallery.co.nz