Margaret Preston exhibition reveals new depths to artist’s life and work
Summary and headline written by AI from the source article. How we work
The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne is currently displaying a retrospective of Margaret Preston’s art that offers a fresh perspective on the Australian artist.
The exhibition presents over 200 of Preston’s works, including early still lifes, flower pieces, and hand-coloured woodcuts, alongside the woodblocks used to create the prints. The show also explores Preston’s personal life, detailing her romantic relationships with fellow artists Bessie Gibson and Gladys Reynell.
It examines her long-held fascination with First Nations Australian art, displaying examples of both her adaptations of Indigenous designs and the original artworks that inspired her. The exhibition reveals a more complex understanding of Preston than previous showings have offered, highlighting her travels throughout Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. Born in Adelaide in 1875, Margaret Preston initially trained in Sydney and Melbourne before travelling extensively in Europe.
In 1919, she married William George Preston, altering her age on the marriage certificate and launching a publicity campaign to build her career. Preston became a prominent voice in the Australian art world, frequently writing and lecturing on her work and ideas. The exhibition includes her later stencil pieces, created in the 1950s, which demonstrate her conceptual and technical skill.
While acknowledging Preston’s appreciation for First Nations art, the exhibition also notes her perspective was shaped by a belief in the superiority of Western culture, seeing Indigenous art as a source of inspiration to be adapted rather than a peer tradition. Despite this, the show argues Preston ultimately created a significant and lasting body of work that contributed to the development of Australian art.
The Margaret Preston exhibition will remain at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia until January 31, 2027.
