Margaret Preston: Modernizing Australian Art and Culture

Introduction

Margaret Rose McPherson was first introduced to the world of art at age twelve. Today, she is known throughout the world as Margaret Preston, one of Australia's most celebrated women artists, particularly for her work in the 1940s and 1950s. Her artwork was both bold and beautiful, as was her personality, which was described as assertive and outgoing. Margaret Preston broke through many barriers in her day. She was a self-made artist who became well-known not just throughout Australia, but also throughout the world. This essay will describe some of Preston's beliefs, as well as specific pieces of her work and how Preston modernized Aboriginal art in Australia. She broke ground for women in her time and implemented unusual techniques that she both designed and studied from around the world.

Preston was extremely influential throughout her life and many have learned from the work she left behind. Her innovative art concepts were both unique and interesting, especially for a woman in the early 1920s. Preston travelled throughout Europe and also studied Japanese art. Both her studies and location seemed to play a huge role in the artwork she produced.

This essay will discuss some of Preston's point of view on art, as well as go over some of her artwork, and how Preston incorporated Aboriginal art and design into her own work. This aspect made her extremely innovative and unique to her generation.

Background and Artistic Training

Preston herself expressed her artistic philosophy in 1953: "It has been said that modern art is international. But as long as human nature remains human every country has its national traits. It is important for a great nation to make a cultural stand. My wish is to see a combined attempt by our artists to give us an art that no other country in the world can produce."

Margaret Preston spent her life studying art throughout the world. She travelled and studied in schools throughout Australia, Munich, Paris, and England. Preston did not marry until she was in her forties, so she spent much of her life single and independent. She is well-known for her wood and linoblock prints, but she initially started out as a landscape artist. Preston was expected to paint nudes in some of her training, but is said to have disliked doing this, preferring instead to paint still life landscapes and scenes.

Margaret Preston was a very influential art teacher and student. She took on many private students and was famous for her studying with Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky, Delaunay, Derain, Vlaminck, and Rouault. Preston's studies in Paris would prove to be very influential to her career. During her travels to Europe, she also ventured to Spain, Italy, and Holland. She studied briefly at the Government Art School for Women in Munich. At that time, Preston did not relate well to the current teaching and trends in Germany, so this period would not prove to be a positive experience.

Preston would implement the concept of decoration without ornamentation throughout her work and became famous for this later in life. Eventually, Preston adopted cubist principles into her work. This greatly influenced her overall artistic approach, giving her an analytical and problem-solving method for her designs. Simplified pictorial space and elements would become the hallmark of much of her work.

Art Styles and Technical Innovation

Throughout her life and working career, Preston also studied Japanese art in great detail. Her work in the early 1920s would reflect decorative and stylistic modernism, which had become quite popular amongst Australian culture at the time. Women's magazines during that period allowed Preston to capitalize on and promote her work.

The artwork of Margaret Preston was very different from other art created during her time. All these years later, no artist has managed to capture or duplicate Preston's work or her exact techniques. Preston very much defined her art style, and her travels had a profound effect on the work she produced and is famous for. Stylistic flat blocks of colour, use of light without shadows, and asymmetry are techniques which emerged throughout Preston's work. Most of this occurred while she studied and surrounded herself with French Post-Impressionists.

During her travels to Asia, Preston discovered an interest in Chinese landscape painters. She developed an interest in using colour pencils in her final years and found intrigue in the ancient art of cutting out shapes and then reusing them to print on another surface. In the final years of her life and work, Preston used her knowledge of natural art to reflect on future and past Australia. Preston implemented Aboriginal symbols and motifs in combination with rich, earthy tones in her pieces. Rough-surfaced masonite was used to create Preston's later prints. Painting directly on the masonite before printing created a new technique which Preston implemented in much of her art.

The Aeroplane (1925) was one of Preston's first works exploring symbols of modernity. In this piece, she fused together Aboriginal forms and rhythms with a modern image. The technique she used was woodcut, printed in black ink from one block with hand-coloured impression. This piece of artwork falls under no known or specific edition and is hand-coloured.

When examining some of Preston's later work, Shoalhaven Gorge (1953) was produced when Preston was seventy-eight years old. The technique used was stencil, printed in colour from hand-cut paper stencil. Some believe this piece represents one of Preston's most successful attempts to synthesize the two techniques—using the stencil process associated with Chinese art and with Aboriginal art.

Preston's Engagement with Aboriginal Art

Preston was, for the most part, a still-life artist, but at the time when her artwork and style were renowned internationally, she proposed a "national" art for Australia based on Aboriginal artwork and techniques. In Flying Over Shoalhaven River (1942) and Aboriginal Landscape (1941), Preston began to reduce her palette to earth-tone colours surrounded by simplified forms with black lines, all based on Aboriginal art techniques.

Preston articulated her philosophical approach to Aboriginal art in 1925: "In wishing to rid myself of the mannerisms of a country other than my own I have gone to the art of a people who had never seen or known anything different from themselves. These are the Australian Aboriginals and it is only from the art of such people in any land that a national art can spring."

Margaret Preston was not the first artist to utilize Aboriginal symbols, but Preston's art forced Australian society to face an important part of their culture: Aboriginal culture. Before that time, Aboriginal beliefs had been dismissed by white Australian society. Preston's incorporation of Aboriginal icons into her work was significant because she brought these overlooked cultural elements into the mainstream art world. Some of Preston's Aboriginal-inspired work is considered to be insensitive and exploitative, but many also believe it to have had a positive influence on raising awareness of Aboriginal artistic traditions.

Significance and Cultural Impact

Preston's artwork is extremely important to Australian society, regardless of whether or not someone appreciates the aesthetic result. At that time, Australia was searching for a true identity, and Preston joined in on this discovery by championing Aboriginal art as the foundation for authentic national expression.

Preston is best described as an aggressive and temperamental individual, but she definitely had a keen eye for her artwork and implemented a great deal of what she learned in her studies from many cultures into the art she created. Most of Preston's artwork has been exhibited and discussed since her death, which is not uncommon amongst artists. Margaret Preston was influential and important to Australia's art because during her lifetime, she was a pioneer of art throughout Australia and for women throughout the world.

Previously, the art world had been dominated by men, and Preston broke through that stereotype to become internationally known. In 1929, Preston became the first woman artist to be commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to paint a self-portrait. In 1937, Preston won a silver medal at the Paris International Exhibition.

Furthermore, Preston published what was described at the time as a modernist feminist autobiographical essay, entitled From Eggs to Electrolux. Her art was very significant to the Aboriginal people, because she incorporated Aboriginal icons into her work. Preston's relationships with famous artists and the promotion of her work in area magazines were also unique and offered a large viewership audience.