NGV exhibition examines Margaret Preston’s appropriation
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At the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, curators Beckett Rozentals and Michael Gentle presented a retrospective of Margaret Preston’s work that addresses her use of First Nations cultures.
The exhibition displays over 200 paintings and woodblocks by Preston (1875-1963), revealing her ambition to create a uniquely Australian modernist style. Rozentals and Gentle acknowledge that Preston’s pursuit of this style involved appropriating First Nations symbols and art, and the exhibition openly explores this tension.
Early in the show, paintings of Australian flora are displayed alongside Preston’s works based on photographs of Wiradjuri scar trees, trees with bark removed for cultural purposes, highlighting her focus on visual motifs without understanding their cultural importance. The exhibition also features contemporary responses to Preston’s work, including paintings by Gordon Bennett and jewellery by Marilyn Russell. Bennett’s series, Home Décor (After M.
Preston), scales up and alters Preston’s gouache series Aboriginal Design to expose the imbalance in their creative exchange. Russell, a descendant of the Bidjigal and Gweagal people, created jewellery boxes displayed alongside Preston’s painting N.S.W. Everlasting Flowers, which depicts a shell-work box made by women of her community. In later works, Preston directly depicted First Nations people, and the exhibition includes reinterpretations of these pieces by artist Tony Albert, who notes the unequal power dynamics at play.
The exhibition runs until January 31.
