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SELECTED WRITINGS
MARGARET PRESTON
COMPILED BY ELIZABETH BUTEL
ETT IMPRINT, SYDNEY
This edition Published by ET T Imprint, Exile Bay 2015
First published by Richmond Ventures & ET T Imprint in April 2003 as Ar t and Australia: Selected Writings 1920 - 1950. Selection of Writings, Illustrations & Introduction © Elizabeth Butel 1985, 1995, 2003, 2015.
The publisher is grateful to the Trustee of the Estate of Margaret Preston and the Permanent Trustee Company Limited for granting permission to reproduce the writings and images of Margaret Preston in this book.
The editor would also like to thank Katrina Cashman and Rhonda Davis for their help in locating materials.
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 as amended, no par t of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or communicated in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or other wise, whether in existence at the date of publication or yet to be invented without prior written permission. All inquiries should go to the Publisher:
ET T Imprint, PO Box R1906, Royal Exchange NSW 1225
ISBN 978-1-925416-20-6 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-925416-23-7 (ebook)
Design by Hanna Gotlieb
Cover photograph of Margaret Preston by Harold Cazneaux, 1936
CONTENTS
Introduction by Elizabeth Butel
A CONVERT TO MODERN ART
From Eggs to Electrolux
Why I became a Convert to Modern Art
Australian Artists Versus Art
Meccano as an Ideal
An Exhibition 1933
The Moderns to this year 1938
On the Birthday of Jindyworobak
The Orientation of Art in the Post-War Pacific
The Gentle Art of Arranging Flowers
The Best Conditions for Furnishing the Bedroom
THE INDIGENOUS ART OF AUSTRALIA
Art for Crafts
The Indigenous Art of Australia
What is to be our National Art?
The Application of Aboriginal Designs
Away with Poker-Worked Kookaburras and Gumleaves
‘Forms that will suggest Australia’
Paintings in Arnhem Land
New Development in Australian Art
Aboriginal Art of Australia
Aboriginal Art
An Art in the Beginning
My Monotypes
Artists’ Groundwork
There and Back in Three Months
Australia Ahoy!
Colour
Woodblocking as a Craft
Pottery as a Profession
Some Silk Screen Methods
ARTISTS’ GROUNDWORK
Crafts That Aid
THE WOODCUTS
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
‘Wherever and whenever in the future Australian painting is discussed and evaluated, Margaret Preston will surely be one of those to be first mentioned.’ 1 - HAL MISSINGHAM, AUGUST 1963
Margaret Preston died in May 1963, aged 88, leaving a large body of artwork, comprising paintings, prints and ceramics. Unlike many artists, she also left a substantial body of writing, covering the mature years of her art and life. The vigour of her opinions, well known to her contemporaries, has continued to create comment in the half century since they were written, as students and scholars of new generations discover the unique place of Margaret Preston in the history of Australian art. Excerpts from her essays have found their way into many and varied studies but it is the purpose of this collection to present a selection of her writings in their entirety. In this way, the reader can experience her direct voice, with all its vision, paradox and contradiction.
As Hal Missingham predicted, Margaret Preston is an artist for all seasons, with contemporary curators and art historians still in the process of re-evaluating her art and ideas. Central among the latter was her role in championing Aboriginal art and her foresight in promoting Australia’s cultural links with Asia. Assessment of her relationship to Aboriginal art has gone full circle in the last twenty years. Criticised as a form of cultural imperialism in the 1980s, the emergence of Aboriginal art from the margins has been accompanied by a shift in scholarly interpretation of Preston’s views. One notable example of this is Andrew Sayers’ recent comparison of her 1946 monotype, ‘Bush Track NSW’, to the spiritual force of a yam Dreaming painting by acclaimed Aboriginal artist, Emily Kngwarreye.’2 As with any interpretation, both these responses will continue to be adjusted in line with new approaches to both Preston and Aboriginal art.
This collection of Preston’s writings spans three decades, the earliest contribution in 1923, the latest in 1949. Since her interests ebbed and flowed during that time, the essays are not presented chronologically but grouped according to theme. The first section, A Convert to Modem Art, presents her biographical writings and theories about Aboriginal art and the role it might play in the creation of a national art. The last section, Artists’ Groundwork, is a miscellany, comprised of selected travel writings and essays on craft and colour theories. It ends with a biographical piece, written at the beginning of the Second World War, where Preston recalls her experiences with shell-shocked soldiers during World War 1.
Preston’s writings of the 1920s are the outcome of her first period of maturity; a synthesis of principles and ideas acquired both here and overseas. Her writings of the 1930s could be loosely characterised as protest writings, aligned with the general tenor of small magazines of that era and the debates about nationalism that preceded World War 2. Her writings of the 1940s are more ruminative, with a new depth of appreciation added to her support for Aboriginal art.
The animating spirit of the work conforms to our impression of that ‘red-headed little firebrand of a woman,’3 described by Margaret Preston’s friends and contemporaries. The voice, at its best, is direct and uncompromising, at its worst, simplistic and sweeping in its generalisations. Language is sometimes bluntly colloquial (as in the references to ‘lubras,’ ‘blacks,’ and ‘dopey whites’). With some notable exceptions, such as From Eggs to Electrolux, the writings seem direct and unpremeditated; the views of a mature woman who was not shy of voicing her opinions about what she perceived as the impoverished state of Australian art and society. The writings were published in a variety of-journals, including Art in Australia, The Home, Undergrowth, Manuscripts, Jindyworobak Review, Australia National Journal and various Sydney Ure Smith publications. Preston adopted a variety of styles in these, in line with the tone of the publication and its intended audience. These ranged from artless fables, as in From Eggs to Electrolux, (where she mythologised her own early development); to evocative commentary, as in The Gentle Art of Arranging Flowers; to bold rhetoric, as in What is to be our National Art? In the process writings, another voice becomes clear, that of the experienced craft worker and educator, whose practicality was equal to adverse conditions,