Group of Seven works on display

In the mid-1960s there was a local artistic community called Group of Seven. This collective of South Canterbury-based artists included Astrid (Molly) Steven, Gypsy Poulston, Ruth Millar, Pat Rowell, Clifford Brunsden and Morgan Jones. They would meet in each other’s homes, discuss art and support each other in their practices.

Under the guidance of Brunsden, in 1966, Group of Seven displayed their artworks at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery – in an exhibition by the same name, Group of Seven.

An exhibition, reassembling artworks from Group of Seven, opened last night at the Aigantighe Art Gallery. The oil painting here, Suburbia, 1963, by Millar, is on display. Millar (1914-2006) was born in New Plymouth, and grew up in Christchurch, where she studied at the Canterbury College School of Art under artists such as

Leonard Booth and Louise Henderson. Millar’s artistic interests were diverse and she was adept in pencil drawings, charcoal, oil, and watercolours, as well as several methods of printing.

Following her student years, she worked as a commercial artist and later, in Wellington, as a public servant. Eventually, she returned to the South Island, where she took a job at a Timaru law firm and met

David Millar, whom she would later marry.

Her artistic pursuits remained an animating force in Millar’s life. She exhibited her works regularly around the country, and occasionally internationally; She was an active member of the local art scene as a Friend of the Aigantighe Art Gallery, a member of the South Canterbury Art Society and Group of Seven.

Suburbia, 1963, shows a crowded urban scene filled with tilting houses. Millar has emphasised the jutting angles of the architecture and flattened the picture surface, giving an impression of cramped endless-ness, especially through the central plane of the painting, so it is difficult to tell where one building stops and the next begins.

It seems as though the mass of buildings might continue forever, endlessly receding into the distance and across the landscape.