Lot 23

Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne 1989
Private collection, Melbourne

A Survey of Australian Relief Prints, Deutscher Galleries, Melbourne, 13 April – 5 May 1978, cat. no. 28 (another impression, dated as c.1926)
The Alan Renshaw Bequest, S.H. Ervin Museum and Art Gallery, Sydney, 9 January – 25 February 1979, cat. no. 47 (another impression, illus. on front cover of exhibition catalogue)
The Art of Margaret Preston, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1980 and touring, cat. no. 13 (another impression, dated as c.1925)
Margaret Preston: The Art of Constant Rearrangement, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 27 December 1985 – 9 February 1986, cat. no. P14 (another impression)
The Prints of Margaret Preston, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 8 August – 18 October 1987, cat. no. 36 (another impression)
A Selection of 19th and 20th Century Australian Art, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne, 23 November – 8 December 1989, cat. no. 34 (another impression, illus. in exhibition catalogue)
Margaret Preston in Mosman, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, 7 September – 13 October 2002 (another impression, illus. in exhibition catalogue)
Margaret Preston, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 29 July – 23 October 2005 and touring (another impression)
Sydney Moderns: Art for a New World, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 6 July – 7 October 2013 (another impression)

Draffin, N., Australian Woodcuts and Linocuts of the 1920s and 1930s, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1976, p. 35 (illus., another impression, as 'Mosman Bridge (large) N.S.W., c.1926')
Deutscher, C., and Butler, R., A Survey of Australian Relief Prints, Deutscher Galleries, Melbourne, 1978, cat. no. 28, p. 21 (illus., another impression, dated as c.1926)
North, I. (ed.), The Art of Margaret Preston, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1980, cat. no. P.13, pp. 36 (illus., another impression, dated as c.1925), 53
Butel, E., Margaret Preston: The Art of Constant Rearrangement, exhibition catalogue, Penguin Books, Victoria, 1985, p. 87
Butler, R., The Prints of Margaret Preston: A Catalogue Raisonné, Australian National Gallery, Canberra and Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1987, cat. no. 113, p. 127 (illus., another impression)
Edwards, D., Peel, R., and Mimmocchi, D., Margaret Preston, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2005, pp. 82 (illus., another impression), 286
Edwards, D., and Mimmocchi, D. (eds.), Sydney Moderns: Art for a New World, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2013, pp. 162 (illus., another impression), 315
Harding, L., Margaret Preston: Recipes for Food and Art, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2016, p. 105 (illus., another impression)

Printmaking formed a large part of the modernist art movement in Australia during the 1920s and1930s. Following the war, many female artists had studied abroad, now returning home with a wealth of artistic knowledge. Margaret Preston was one such artist, becoming a leading exponent of the modernist movement in Australia.

Like many of her peers, Margaret Preston's artistic talents were not confined solely to painting. She was dedicated to progressing the celebrated mediums of printmaking, developing woodcuts throughout every phase of her career. It is those of the 1920s, however, that represent her most refined achievements. Preston skillfully utilised the inherent qualities of woodcuts to create her unique and recognisable works. She understood that the very nature of the woodcut affected the character of the image produced and employed this technique to produce single block prints, explaining that "the wood hinders facility and compels the worker to keep forms in the compositions
severe."(1) Whilst she was aware of the methods for colour printing, Preston rarely did so, carving a single block printed in black ink and adding colour by hand to produce a sense of harmony and depth. This process enabled her woodcuts to be characterised by bold lines, strong forms, and simplified compositions, reflecting the influence of traditional Japanese printmaking.

Sydney was a progressive hub of the modernist movement in the earlier part of the twentieth century and the local artists were inspired by their surroundings. As her primary subject matter, Margaret Preston often chose floral arrangements, however the surrounding landscapes were also of great inspiration. Mosman was a favoured location, featured in several of Margaret Preston's important prints of the period. Her admiration for the area shines through artworks such as ‘Mosman Bridge' c.1927, which captures the journey along a suspended walkway over the upper
section of Mosman Bay. The delicately laced and inky black outline of the wooden bridge, the skillfully placed enclosed clusters of the red-roofed flats, along with the overall geometric and linear construction of the work perfectly illustrate the modernist techniques synonymous with the period.

The women artists of the 1920s and 1930s, in many ways, championed the modernist movement and were major contributors to the development of Australian art. The prints by Margaret Preston stand the test of time and sing to their own accord, reflecting her pure passion for art and her perseverance through the development of modernism in Australia.

Hannah Ryan
Print Specialist

(1) Grant, K., In Relief, Australian Wood Engravings, Woodcuts and Linocuts, The National Gallery of Victoria, 1997, p. 30

Other impressions of this print are held in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

© Margaret Preston/Copyright Agency, 2023