Snake marquette a wedding gift for student
Francis Aubrey Shurrock (1887-1977) is known as an artist and teacher who shaped the practice of modern sculpture in New Zealand.
Shurrock was born in Warrington, Lancashire, England, and studied at the Chester School of Art from 1905 and then the Royal College of Art in London from 1909.
After his service in World War I, he moved to New Zealand and took the position as head of the sculpture department at Canterbury College School of Art in 1924.
Alongside teaching, he also exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and throughout New Zealand with numerous art societies.
Shurrock taught at Canterbury College School of Art for 24 years – investing in the lives and practices of his art students, who included Rita Angus, Toss Woollaston, Bill Sutton and Austen Deans.
A truly inspirational and influential teacher, he maintained relationships with his former pupils for many years.
One such student was Victor Newman, who studied under Shurrock during the mid to late 1930s.
The two men kept in touch, and after serving in World War II, Newman returned to Aotearoa to study medicine; Shurrock was proud of his friend’s achievements when he heard that Newman had graduated as a doctor.
One day he received a letter from Newman communicating that he was soon to be married.
Shurrock seized his breadboard and began carving a snake set against a rounded background – a symbol of Asclepius, Greco-Roman god of healing, and of medicine – until he had finished Snake in Wood, 1955.
This relief carving was then used to produce a plaster sculpture (a cast) which was then painted and gifted to the couple as a wedding present.
The gift was presented soon after the wedding when Shurrock broke his travels between his home in Christchurch and Dunedin where he was working on installing his two bronze sculptures at the summit of Signal Hill, Dunedin – the Otago Provincial Centennial Memorial.
Snake in Wood joined the permanent collection of the Aigantighe Art Gallery in 1970 – the marquette was gifted by the artist himself.
Victor Newman was a general practitioner in Timaru for 42 years; the story behind this artwork was recently and kindly relayed to the Aigantighe Art Gallery by Victor’s wife and daughter – Sara and Joanna Newman.