During the late 1920s and into the 1930s female printmakers became more prominent than their male counterparts in Australia. There was a number of factors during the 1930’s in Australia that contributed to this shift in dominance. The Great Depression had affected all Australians; in particular it drove men from their artistic endeavors towards other work to gain additional income to help their families survive this difficult period. Woman’s rights were beginning to change and there were increasing opportunities for women to learn printmaking as art groups for women were created. An example of this is the Women’s Industrial Arts Society established in 1934.[1] Female teachers also began to emerge at this time. Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor, along with Dorrit Black, Sybil Craig, Ethel Spowers, Christian Waller, Jessie Trail to name a few were modernists who took to printmaking in full force, transforming art and printmaking practices during this period.
Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor met in Sydney in the 1920s both with the desire to bring back to Australia the advances in arts practice that they had encountered whilst travelling. The two worked together on illustrations and articles for The Home magazine. While both artists were pushing the boundaries in the Australian art scene, Preston and Proctor had quite different views on what purpose Australian art should serve in an international sense. Proctor wanted Australian artists to join and be inspired by the international modernist movement, whereas Preston aimed to create a distinctively Australian style; a national approach based on native flowers, plants and Aboriginal motifs.[2]
All of these factors had an impact in the shaping of the art in Australia and why women rose to prominence in the printmaking scene of the 1930s.
A great number of important events were happening in Australia in the late 1920s and during the 1930s, all of which impacted on society and consequently on art as well. In 1929, The Great Depression swept across the world, including Australia. This was a time of hardship for many people. It did not matter if you were married or single, old or young, had children or not; very few Australians remained untouched by the Great Depression. Tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs and in some industries women replaced men as they were paid a lower salary.[3] Thirteen per cent of the Australian workforce was unemployed by December 1929.[4] Unemployment had more than doubled by mid-1930, by 1931, 31 per cent of the workforce was unemployed and this number continued to increase until 1932.[5] With no employment or money many people became homeless, living in makeshift shelters without heating or toilets.[6] Economic turmoil promoted a focus on critical, essential endeavors and activities such as art were viewed as unnecessary.
Printmaking was not yet seen as a medium that was held in the same regard as some of the other fine arts mediums such as painting or sculpture. While printmaking was still seen as an inferior art form in comparison to painting or sculpture in the 1930s, education was certainty becoming more readily available in this field. Many art schools had included printmaking in their courses and artists were opening up their studios and workshops to teach its techniques. The teaching staff of higher education courses in printmaking were often female and their numbers only grew as more positions became available. Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor were two of these women who took on teaching positions to help bring in additional income that the sales of their prints alone were not providing.
In the early 1900s the Painter-Etcher Society led the way in the printmaking scene in Australia. This group of printmakers was predominately made up of men, Jessie Trail, a well-trained and well-travelled printmaker, was one of, if not the only, woman who attended. During the Great Depression, printmaking lost its monetary value and men, being the economic stability of a household, spent their time on other endeavors that enabled them to generate income to provide for their families. Men were inclined to take over the printmaking scene when printmaking was popular with collectors as a purchased art form which meant an income could be earned. When it was no longer a money making venture this allowed women to enter a men’s world even though it was seen as a ‘craft’ or ‘hobby’ when they did so.[7]
In May, 1936 The Sydney Morning Herald published an article on the Women’s Industrial Arts Society titled ‘Made by Hand. Exhibition of Women’s Work. Suggestions for Hobbies.’ During the 1930s a woman’s role in society was still mostly as a house wife and stay at home mother. Most women married young and stayed at home to clean, cook and look after children while their husbands brought in the income. Some women went into jobs like nursing and teaching as they were seen to compliment their maternal instincts, often these women were single. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald of 1936, states that “To-day, few women can afford the time or the money to indulge in a hobby which is not of a practical nature. If they are to satisfy the urge for self-expression, then they must produce something which can be put to good use. That is why household arts and crafts are becoming increasingly popular as spare-time occupations.”[8]
During the late 1920s and into the 1930s two associations were set up in Australia, one in Sydney and one in Melbourne. These began with the introduction of the Modernist movement in Australia. Whilst the two Contemporary Groups had the same name these organisations were separate. In Sydney the well-known and highly regarded painter, George Lambert, and his student Thea Proctor founded the Contemporary Group in 1925. In 1932 George Bell started the Contemporary Group in Melbourne; however, in 1938 he changed his focus to the Contemporary Art Society and the Contemporary Group of Melbourne was no more.
Both Melbourne and Sydney had developed significant modernist movements with women artists involved and often leading the way with their modernist work.
Two women printmakers were prominent in the Sydney art scene in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor started to dominate the printmaking scene in the late 1920s, transforming ideas about how a print should be treated and pushing modern themes in Australia. Though the two had very different ideas on art in relation to a global market they became friends and worked alongside one another promoting each other’s work. Preston had been pushing that Australian artists should remain within Australia and develop a truly Australian style devoid of any external influence. Her endeavors for this truly Australian style can be seen in her use of native flowers and Aboriginal motifs and colours in her mid to late 1930s works. Proctor had a completely different view on this matter, she believed that Australia should receive more international exhibitions and artists to stimulate debate and provide inspiration in the art scene of Australia. She also believed that Australian artists should become part of international movements. Both artists had a long-lasting, significant impact on the transformation of printmaking practices and on the push of the modernist movement in the 1930s in Australia.[9]
Margaret Preston (formally Margaret McPherson) was not only a pioneer of printmaking in Australia but was also pro-women’s rights. In 1929 she was commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to paint a self-portrait, becoming the first female given this honor. Over her career Preston has experimented with painting, drawing, textiles and printmaking. While she changed her style of printing often, Preston produced a wide variety of prints to a very high standard that are considered a highly important and significant collection of Australian works.
Preston was born in Port Adelaide in 1987. She spent some time studying art in Australia before travelling overseas to Munich, Paris and England to further her education. Preston studied at the Adelaide School of Design after her father died in 1894. Whilst she was studying she also picked up teaching work to help support her mother and younger sister.[10] Preston continued to teach throughout her artistic career, believing that it was important to have an income that was separate from her art making so that money would not dictate her creative processes. Preston stated that to “paint her own pictures as she would, to choose her own subjects and do them in her own way, leaving all thought of selling out her mind.”[11]
Preston studied and taught art during her time in both England and Australia; all whilst continually experimenting with her own art making and use of colour within her works. In 1919 she married William George Preston in Australia. This financially sound marriage allowed Preston to spend more time developing her art and theories within her arts practice. Preston and her husband moved to Sydney where she joined the modernist art scene. She began creating works similar to the still life print Everlasting flowers (see plate 1) where she combined printmaking, decoration, design and flower arrangement into her own unique style of art making. Her attraction to the still life style of painting and printmaking was due to the fact that it allowed her to play with pictorial concerns or colour and form and allow these compositional elements to have a huge visual impact on the final work.[12]
Preston’s first major art exhibition is Australia was a joint exhibition with her friend, Thea Proctor, in 1925 at the Grosvenor Galleries in Sydney and then at the New Gallery in Melbourne.[13] Preston contributed sixty-three woodblock prints; Proctor on the other hand contributed a range of works in different mediums; drawings, lithographs and three woodblock prints. Proctor organized the framing in bright red Chinese lacquer frames. This exhibition was a huge success for both artists, each selling a number of works. The works were affordable, nearly a third of what other works were selling for at the time and were perfect as decorative prints for a home or apartment.[14]
Margaret Preston’s woodcut, Everlasting flowers, from the late 1920s is a great example of the style of print that she became well known for in the early 1930s. The vivid use of colour, symmetrical arrangement of flowers and the use of crisp black lines were evident in much of her work at this time. For this woodcut, Preston used the woodblock techniques that she learnt whilst studying Japanese printmaking. Instead of cutting multiple plates to print in colour, she hand coloured this and many other of her prints with gouache and black ink. Thin Japanese paper was also used to print on, showing the influence Japanese printmaking had on her work. Preston talks about her love for flowers as subjects of her paintings and prints, she states that the flowers offer a simplicity that allows the composition to become an important part of the artwork.
“My subject I ignore. My fondness for painting banksias is due to the simplicity of their form and colour. They allow the other materials in the composition to have an equally dominant position in the scheme without appearing to do so. I want stark realism without imagery; the elements of my compositions are not literary symbols. In my search for forms which will suggest Australia I prefer wood-blocking to painting, for the woodblock hinders facility and compels the worker to keep forms in his composition severe”[15]
In the 1930’s Preston’s style changed dramatically. The bright, vivid colours that she had become known for were completely stripped back to either raw, earthy tones or no colour at all. A newspaper article from the 17th December 1927, discussed the newest edition of the popular magazine Art in Australia, this change in Preston’s work is discussed. It quotes the Art in Australia article ‘An Artist’s Appreciation of Margaret Preston’ written by her friend Thea Proctor telling of Preston’s modernist change. “From a purely realistic painter she became, after study abroad, primarily interested in the thin and delicate play of cold light on inanimate objects. In her next period she massed her designs and simplified her form and colour. Her latest work she has made severely simple, and has painted almost in monotone." [16]
An example of this new colourless style is Banksia and Trunk, circa 1935. This piece shares the crisp black lines of her earlier coloured work but does not have the same vivid, summery feel to it. It is lacking the gouache colouring that Preston previously used. Her style of carving remains similar and the detail she captures in the plant through her use of line work, does not diminish.
Comparing Everlasting Flowers from 1929 to Banksia and Trunk from 1935, the viewer can see that Preston has disregarded the importance that symmetry played in her earlier works. In Everlasting Flowers the flowers, leaves and vase have been arranged in such a way that they are in nearly perfect symmetry. The black frame surrounds both artworks however in Everlasting flowers the plant arrangement does not venture outside of the frame. In Banksia and Trunk the leaves reach the edges of the frame and the branches disappear outside of it. Banksia and Trunk is an image taken straight from nature, the plant not taken from its home or sent to her from a friend as some flowers were. The flowers in Everlasting flowers however are not going to be everlasting as they have been picked and removed from their main stem and arranged into a form that would not be seen in a garden bed.
Margaret Preston died in 1963 at the age of 80. Her works are widely represented in art collections, both public and private, around Australia.[17] Through her determination and will, Preston was able to inspire students, transform printmaking practices and push modernism in Australia.
Thea Proctor’s body of work developed over her lifetime became a highly significant part of the history of printmaking in Australia. Proctor held the belief that Australia should broaden its outlook and aim to become part of the international art scene, taking ideas from movements overseas. Proctor became an integral part of the art world and an influential woman in the promotion of the modern movement and of other artist’s work, such as Margaret Preston.[18]
Born as Althea Proctor in Armidale in 1879, Thea Proctor showed a love for art, especially drawing, at an early age when she won first prize in an art competition that was judged by artist Arthur Streeton.[19] She began studying at the art school Academie Julian in Sydney in 1896 when she was just 16 years old; studying under Julian Ashton[20]. Her first exhibition was in 1897, exhibiting with the NSW Society of Artists.[21] Like many artists of her era, Proctor travelled overseas after initially studying in Australia. After her time at the Julian Ashton School, Proctor worked, whilst studying in England, in the early 1900s.
In 1903 Proctor travelled to London and was tutored by fellow Australian artist George Lambert who continued to be a close friend in years to come. Like Margaret Preston, she was inspired by the Japanese print exhibitions that were often displayed in London.[22] During this time Proctor painted many fan designs in watercolours inspired by Charles Conder, an English painter and printmaker. She remained in London for 18 years exhibiting with a number of art society groups.
Proctor reluctantly returned to Australia in 1921 and settled in Sydney. She did many things in Sydney to create an interest in linocuts, lithography and other printmaking mediums. In 1925 she founded the Contemporary Group alongside her tutor and friend George Lambert, who was now also living in Sydney.[23]
It was in Sydney that she met Margaret Preston for the first time whilst working for The Home magazine.
The Home published many of Proctors designs and watercolours and became a way for her to try and stimulate the Australian art scene with modernist ideas. While Preston and Proctor were both in England at the same time they did not meet until they moved back to Sydney. It was here that their friendship formed. Proctor often supported Preston’s works by writing articles in The Home and other magazines.
In 1926 Julian Ashton invited Proctor to teach design classes at the Sydney Art School. In order for her students to learn to simplify design and colour, she used linocuts in these lessons. She taught and influenced many new artists such as Gladys Gibbons and Amy Kingston. [24] Proctor talks about her years teaching in 1965 saying that,
“I have taught for 40 years and always tried to train students to see a picture as a harmony of colour not as a subject, and to see rhythm of line and colour. I have told students it is only by keeping an open mind that one’s taste can change even unconsciously and it is a most exciting experience to realise suddenly that one has a new taste.”[25]
Thea Proctor started out in her artistic practice using painting as her preferred medium. While she still continued to paint, draw and use other printmaking methords it was not until Margaret Preston gave her some woodblocks that she began to do woodcuts.[26] Her woodcut, The Swing (see plate 3), from 1925 shows her bright, strong style of printmaking inspired by Japanese woodblocks, the modernist movement of the time and her friend Preston’s work. Proctor produced her first four woodblack prints in 1925 with the intention that they would be made specifically to be hung in a children’s nursery. These prints were printed in black and then hand coloured. These early images depicted children and parents playing with brightly coloured figures and backgrounds. The Swing depicts a mother pushing her daughter on a swing and a young man playing in the background whilst another mother and son sit in the bottom right hand corner watching intently. The background shows an elegant park, clouds framing the right side of the image with birds flying, mimicking the shapes of the clouds. A tree in the foreground frames the left side of the image where the mother is pushing her daughter on the swing hanging from the tree.
Like Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor was also influenced by the Modernist movement that reached Australia in the 1930s. While Proctor’s work did not change significantly the impact of this movement can still be seen in her use of an enclosed, flattened space. Her images also became slightly more jagged and angular than they previously were. A good example of this change in her woodblocks is Summer (see plate 4) from 1930. Summer depicts a lady reclining in a hammock, head resting on a highly decorative cushion. Maybe she is a representation of a maternal figure like the mothers pictured in The Swing. A child is lying on the grass reading a magazine in the lower third of the print. On the left hand side is a dog gazing out to the sea in the background.
Comparing Summer, 1930 and The Swing, 1925; it is clear that Proctors use of colour has not changed, though her use of line work and treatment of space give these works a vastly different feeling. Summer’s line work is thick and bold while The Swing contains more delicate line work and a great deal of detail. The trees in each image are treated very differently, in The Swing the trees are shown with each branch and individual leaf. In Summer the trees consist of abstract shapes with no extra detail, the leaves are suggested only by the jagged edges of the shapes.
Thea Proctor’s art style developed through many stages in her life, from fan designs to modernist paintings and prints. Her work helped to transform printmaking practices of the time, not only because she was a woman but also because she worked hard in the medium and helped to develop a broader interest in printmaking, bringing it to a wider audience. The price of her prints allowed less wealthy consumers to purchase works to display in their homes or apartments. Proctor died in 1966 at the age of 87. Her work has now been recognized as an important collection of printmaking in the art history of Australia.
A number of things were happening in Australia that impacted the art world in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. The Great Depression impacted many Australians and in turn, it hit heavily on the art world. The unemployment rate was at an all-time high and some women, whose jobs were traditionally as a house wife, took over men’s jobs as they were not paid at the same rate. Education in printmaking also became easier to access for woman and a number of women artists taught printmaking during this period, including Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor, allowing women to feel more comfortable in the classroom. Women’s art groups were set up and their work exhibited throughout the 1930s, for example the Women’s Industrial Arts Society which ran until World War II.
A great number of women printmakers such as Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor, Dorrit Black, Sybil Craig, Ethel Spowers, Christian Waller, Jessie Trail and many more; came onto the modern art scene transforming not only printmaking practices but also other mediums such as painting.
[1] Roger Butler, The Prints Of Margaret Preston: A Catalogue Raisonne, 1st ed. (Port Melbourne, Victoria: Thames & Hudson, 2005), 26.
[2] Thea Proctor and Janda Gooding, Thea Proctor, 1st ed. ([Perth]: Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1982), 4.
[3] Keith Smith, The Great Depression: Australian Battlers Remember, 1st ed. (Milsons Point, N.S.W.: Random House Australia, 2003), 4.
[4] Smith, The Great Depression: Australian Battlers Remember, 4.
[5] Smith, The Great Depression: Australian Battlers Remember, 4
[6] Smith, The Great Depression: Australian Battlers Remember, 3.
[7] 'Made By Hand: Exhibitions Of Women’s Work: Suggestions For Hobbies', The Sydney Morning Herald, 1936, 12.
[8] 'Made By Hand: Exhibitions Of Women’s Work: Suggestions For Hobbies', The Sydney Morning Herald, 12.
[9] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 4.
[10] Elizabeth Butel and Margaret Preston, Margaret Preston, The Art Of Constant Rearrangement, 1st ed. (Ringwood, Vic.: Viking in association with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1986), 2.
[11] Elizabeth Butel, Margaret Preston, 1st ed. (Sydney: ETT Imprint, 1995), 2.
[12] Denise Mimmocchi and Deborah Edwards, 'Margaret Preston', Art & Australia, 2005, 103.
[13] Roger Butler, Printed Images by Australian Artists 1885-1955, 1st ed. (Canberra, A.C.T.: National Gallery of Australia, 2007), 166.
[14] Butler, Printed Images By Australian Artists 1885-1955, 169.
[15] Hal Missingham, 'Margaret Preston', Art & Australia, 1963, 100.
[16] 'Art In Australia: Margaret Preston Number', The Register, 1927, 5.
[17] Missingham, 'Margaret Preston', Art & Australia, 90.
[18] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 4.
[19] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 2.
[20] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 2.
[21] Alan McCulloch and Susan McCulloch, The Encyclopedia Of Australian Art, 1st ed. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994), 582.
[22] Butler, Printed Images By Australian Artists 1885-1955, 166.
[23] Ian Chilvers and John Glaves-Smith, "Contemporary Group." In A Dictionary Of Modern And Contemporary Art, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
[24] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 5.
[25] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 1.
[26] Butler, Printed: Images By Australian Artists 1885-1955, 166.
Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor met in Sydney in the 1920s both with the desire to bring back to Australia the advances in arts practice that they had encountered whilst travelling. The two worked together on illustrations and articles for The Home magazine. While both artists were pushing the boundaries in the Australian art scene, Preston and Proctor had quite different views on what purpose Australian art should serve in an international sense. Proctor wanted Australian artists to join and be inspired by the international modernist movement, whereas Preston aimed to create a distinctively Australian style; a national approach based on native flowers, plants and Aboriginal motifs.[2]
All of these factors had an impact in the shaping of the art in Australia and why women rose to prominence in the printmaking scene of the 1930s.
A great number of important events were happening in Australia in the late 1920s and during the 1930s, all of which impacted on society and consequently on art as well. In 1929, The Great Depression swept across the world, including Australia. This was a time of hardship for many people. It did not matter if you were married or single, old or young, had children or not; very few Australians remained untouched by the Great Depression. Tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs and in some industries women replaced men as they were paid a lower salary.[3] Thirteen per cent of the Australian workforce was unemployed by December 1929.[4] Unemployment had more than doubled by mid-1930, by 1931, 31 per cent of the workforce was unemployed and this number continued to increase until 1932.[5] With no employment or money many people became homeless, living in makeshift shelters without heating or toilets.[6] Economic turmoil promoted a focus on critical, essential endeavors and activities such as art were viewed as unnecessary.
Printmaking was not yet seen as a medium that was held in the same regard as some of the other fine arts mediums such as painting or sculpture. While printmaking was still seen as an inferior art form in comparison to painting or sculpture in the 1930s, education was certainty becoming more readily available in this field. Many art schools had included printmaking in their courses and artists were opening up their studios and workshops to teach its techniques. The teaching staff of higher education courses in printmaking were often female and their numbers only grew as more positions became available. Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor were two of these women who took on teaching positions to help bring in additional income that the sales of their prints alone were not providing.
In the early 1900s the Painter-Etcher Society led the way in the printmaking scene in Australia. This group of printmakers was predominately made up of men, Jessie Trail, a well-trained and well-travelled printmaker, was one of, if not the only, woman who attended. During the Great Depression, printmaking lost its monetary value and men, being the economic stability of a household, spent their time on other endeavors that enabled them to generate income to provide for their families. Men were inclined to take over the printmaking scene when printmaking was popular with collectors as a purchased art form which meant an income could be earned. When it was no longer a money making venture this allowed women to enter a men’s world even though it was seen as a ‘craft’ or ‘hobby’ when they did so.[7]
In May, 1936 The Sydney Morning Herald published an article on the Women’s Industrial Arts Society titled ‘Made by Hand. Exhibition of Women’s Work. Suggestions for Hobbies.’ During the 1930s a woman’s role in society was still mostly as a house wife and stay at home mother. Most women married young and stayed at home to clean, cook and look after children while their husbands brought in the income. Some women went into jobs like nursing and teaching as they were seen to compliment their maternal instincts, often these women were single. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald of 1936, states that “To-day, few women can afford the time or the money to indulge in a hobby which is not of a practical nature. If they are to satisfy the urge for self-expression, then they must produce something which can be put to good use. That is why household arts and crafts are becoming increasingly popular as spare-time occupations.”[8]
During the late 1920s and into the 1930s two associations were set up in Australia, one in Sydney and one in Melbourne. These began with the introduction of the Modernist movement in Australia. Whilst the two Contemporary Groups had the same name these organisations were separate. In Sydney the well-known and highly regarded painter, George Lambert, and his student Thea Proctor founded the Contemporary Group in 1925. In 1932 George Bell started the Contemporary Group in Melbourne; however, in 1938 he changed his focus to the Contemporary Art Society and the Contemporary Group of Melbourne was no more.
Both Melbourne and Sydney had developed significant modernist movements with women artists involved and often leading the way with their modernist work.
Two women printmakers were prominent in the Sydney art scene in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor started to dominate the printmaking scene in the late 1920s, transforming ideas about how a print should be treated and pushing modern themes in Australia. Though the two had very different ideas on art in relation to a global market they became friends and worked alongside one another promoting each other’s work. Preston had been pushing that Australian artists should remain within Australia and develop a truly Australian style devoid of any external influence. Her endeavors for this truly Australian style can be seen in her use of native flowers and Aboriginal motifs and colours in her mid to late 1930s works. Proctor had a completely different view on this matter, she believed that Australia should receive more international exhibitions and artists to stimulate debate and provide inspiration in the art scene of Australia. She also believed that Australian artists should become part of international movements. Both artists had a long-lasting, significant impact on the transformation of printmaking practices and on the push of the modernist movement in the 1930s in Australia.[9]
Margaret Preston (formally Margaret McPherson) was not only a pioneer of printmaking in Australia but was also pro-women’s rights. In 1929 she was commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to paint a self-portrait, becoming the first female given this honor. Over her career Preston has experimented with painting, drawing, textiles and printmaking. While she changed her style of printing often, Preston produced a wide variety of prints to a very high standard that are considered a highly important and significant collection of Australian works.
Preston was born in Port Adelaide in 1987. She spent some time studying art in Australia before travelling overseas to Munich, Paris and England to further her education. Preston studied at the Adelaide School of Design after her father died in 1894. Whilst she was studying she also picked up teaching work to help support her mother and younger sister.[10] Preston continued to teach throughout her artistic career, believing that it was important to have an income that was separate from her art making so that money would not dictate her creative processes. Preston stated that to “paint her own pictures as she would, to choose her own subjects and do them in her own way, leaving all thought of selling out her mind.”[11]
Preston studied and taught art during her time in both England and Australia; all whilst continually experimenting with her own art making and use of colour within her works. In 1919 she married William George Preston in Australia. This financially sound marriage allowed Preston to spend more time developing her art and theories within her arts practice. Preston and her husband moved to Sydney where she joined the modernist art scene. She began creating works similar to the still life print Everlasting flowers (see plate 1) where she combined printmaking, decoration, design and flower arrangement into her own unique style of art making. Her attraction to the still life style of painting and printmaking was due to the fact that it allowed her to play with pictorial concerns or colour and form and allow these compositional elements to have a huge visual impact on the final work.[12]
Preston’s first major art exhibition is Australia was a joint exhibition with her friend, Thea Proctor, in 1925 at the Grosvenor Galleries in Sydney and then at the New Gallery in Melbourne.[13] Preston contributed sixty-three woodblock prints; Proctor on the other hand contributed a range of works in different mediums; drawings, lithographs and three woodblock prints. Proctor organized the framing in bright red Chinese lacquer frames. This exhibition was a huge success for both artists, each selling a number of works. The works were affordable, nearly a third of what other works were selling for at the time and were perfect as decorative prints for a home or apartment.[14]
Margaret Preston’s woodcut, Everlasting flowers, from the late 1920s is a great example of the style of print that she became well known for in the early 1930s. The vivid use of colour, symmetrical arrangement of flowers and the use of crisp black lines were evident in much of her work at this time. For this woodcut, Preston used the woodblock techniques that she learnt whilst studying Japanese printmaking. Instead of cutting multiple plates to print in colour, she hand coloured this and many other of her prints with gouache and black ink. Thin Japanese paper was also used to print on, showing the influence Japanese printmaking had on her work. Preston talks about her love for flowers as subjects of her paintings and prints, she states that the flowers offer a simplicity that allows the composition to become an important part of the artwork.
“My subject I ignore. My fondness for painting banksias is due to the simplicity of their form and colour. They allow the other materials in the composition to have an equally dominant position in the scheme without appearing to do so. I want stark realism without imagery; the elements of my compositions are not literary symbols. In my search for forms which will suggest Australia I prefer wood-blocking to painting, for the woodblock hinders facility and compels the worker to keep forms in his composition severe”[15]
In the 1930’s Preston’s style changed dramatically. The bright, vivid colours that she had become known for were completely stripped back to either raw, earthy tones or no colour at all. A newspaper article from the 17th December 1927, discussed the newest edition of the popular magazine Art in Australia, this change in Preston’s work is discussed. It quotes the Art in Australia article ‘An Artist’s Appreciation of Margaret Preston’ written by her friend Thea Proctor telling of Preston’s modernist change. “From a purely realistic painter she became, after study abroad, primarily interested in the thin and delicate play of cold light on inanimate objects. In her next period she massed her designs and simplified her form and colour. Her latest work she has made severely simple, and has painted almost in monotone." [16]
An example of this new colourless style is Banksia and Trunk, circa 1935. This piece shares the crisp black lines of her earlier coloured work but does not have the same vivid, summery feel to it. It is lacking the gouache colouring that Preston previously used. Her style of carving remains similar and the detail she captures in the plant through her use of line work, does not diminish.
Comparing Everlasting Flowers from 1929 to Banksia and Trunk from 1935, the viewer can see that Preston has disregarded the importance that symmetry played in her earlier works. In Everlasting Flowers the flowers, leaves and vase have been arranged in such a way that they are in nearly perfect symmetry. The black frame surrounds both artworks however in Everlasting flowers the plant arrangement does not venture outside of the frame. In Banksia and Trunk the leaves reach the edges of the frame and the branches disappear outside of it. Banksia and Trunk is an image taken straight from nature, the plant not taken from its home or sent to her from a friend as some flowers were. The flowers in Everlasting flowers however are not going to be everlasting as they have been picked and removed from their main stem and arranged into a form that would not be seen in a garden bed.
Margaret Preston died in 1963 at the age of 80. Her works are widely represented in art collections, both public and private, around Australia.[17] Through her determination and will, Preston was able to inspire students, transform printmaking practices and push modernism in Australia.
Thea Proctor’s body of work developed over her lifetime became a highly significant part of the history of printmaking in Australia. Proctor held the belief that Australia should broaden its outlook and aim to become part of the international art scene, taking ideas from movements overseas. Proctor became an integral part of the art world and an influential woman in the promotion of the modern movement and of other artist’s work, such as Margaret Preston.[18]
Born as Althea Proctor in Armidale in 1879, Thea Proctor showed a love for art, especially drawing, at an early age when she won first prize in an art competition that was judged by artist Arthur Streeton.[19] She began studying at the art school Academie Julian in Sydney in 1896 when she was just 16 years old; studying under Julian Ashton[20]. Her first exhibition was in 1897, exhibiting with the NSW Society of Artists.[21] Like many artists of her era, Proctor travelled overseas after initially studying in Australia. After her time at the Julian Ashton School, Proctor worked, whilst studying in England, in the early 1900s.
In 1903 Proctor travelled to London and was tutored by fellow Australian artist George Lambert who continued to be a close friend in years to come. Like Margaret Preston, she was inspired by the Japanese print exhibitions that were often displayed in London.[22] During this time Proctor painted many fan designs in watercolours inspired by Charles Conder, an English painter and printmaker. She remained in London for 18 years exhibiting with a number of art society groups.
Proctor reluctantly returned to Australia in 1921 and settled in Sydney. She did many things in Sydney to create an interest in linocuts, lithography and other printmaking mediums. In 1925 she founded the Contemporary Group alongside her tutor and friend George Lambert, who was now also living in Sydney.[23]
It was in Sydney that she met Margaret Preston for the first time whilst working for The Home magazine.
The Home published many of Proctors designs and watercolours and became a way for her to try and stimulate the Australian art scene with modernist ideas. While Preston and Proctor were both in England at the same time they did not meet until they moved back to Sydney. It was here that their friendship formed. Proctor often supported Preston’s works by writing articles in The Home and other magazines.
In 1926 Julian Ashton invited Proctor to teach design classes at the Sydney Art School. In order for her students to learn to simplify design and colour, she used linocuts in these lessons. She taught and influenced many new artists such as Gladys Gibbons and Amy Kingston. [24] Proctor talks about her years teaching in 1965 saying that,
“I have taught for 40 years and always tried to train students to see a picture as a harmony of colour not as a subject, and to see rhythm of line and colour. I have told students it is only by keeping an open mind that one’s taste can change even unconsciously and it is a most exciting experience to realise suddenly that one has a new taste.”[25]
Thea Proctor started out in her artistic practice using painting as her preferred medium. While she still continued to paint, draw and use other printmaking methords it was not until Margaret Preston gave her some woodblocks that she began to do woodcuts.[26] Her woodcut, The Swing (see plate 3), from 1925 shows her bright, strong style of printmaking inspired by Japanese woodblocks, the modernist movement of the time and her friend Preston’s work. Proctor produced her first four woodblack prints in 1925 with the intention that they would be made specifically to be hung in a children’s nursery. These prints were printed in black and then hand coloured. These early images depicted children and parents playing with brightly coloured figures and backgrounds. The Swing depicts a mother pushing her daughter on a swing and a young man playing in the background whilst another mother and son sit in the bottom right hand corner watching intently. The background shows an elegant park, clouds framing the right side of the image with birds flying, mimicking the shapes of the clouds. A tree in the foreground frames the left side of the image where the mother is pushing her daughter on the swing hanging from the tree.
Like Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor was also influenced by the Modernist movement that reached Australia in the 1930s. While Proctor’s work did not change significantly the impact of this movement can still be seen in her use of an enclosed, flattened space. Her images also became slightly more jagged and angular than they previously were. A good example of this change in her woodblocks is Summer (see plate 4) from 1930. Summer depicts a lady reclining in a hammock, head resting on a highly decorative cushion. Maybe she is a representation of a maternal figure like the mothers pictured in The Swing. A child is lying on the grass reading a magazine in the lower third of the print. On the left hand side is a dog gazing out to the sea in the background.
Comparing Summer, 1930 and The Swing, 1925; it is clear that Proctors use of colour has not changed, though her use of line work and treatment of space give these works a vastly different feeling. Summer’s line work is thick and bold while The Swing contains more delicate line work and a great deal of detail. The trees in each image are treated very differently, in The Swing the trees are shown with each branch and individual leaf. In Summer the trees consist of abstract shapes with no extra detail, the leaves are suggested only by the jagged edges of the shapes.
Thea Proctor’s art style developed through many stages in her life, from fan designs to modernist paintings and prints. Her work helped to transform printmaking practices of the time, not only because she was a woman but also because she worked hard in the medium and helped to develop a broader interest in printmaking, bringing it to a wider audience. The price of her prints allowed less wealthy consumers to purchase works to display in their homes or apartments. Proctor died in 1966 at the age of 87. Her work has now been recognized as an important collection of printmaking in the art history of Australia.
A number of things were happening in Australia that impacted the art world in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. The Great Depression impacted many Australians and in turn, it hit heavily on the art world. The unemployment rate was at an all-time high and some women, whose jobs were traditionally as a house wife, took over men’s jobs as they were not paid at the same rate. Education in printmaking also became easier to access for woman and a number of women artists taught printmaking during this period, including Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor, allowing women to feel more comfortable in the classroom. Women’s art groups were set up and their work exhibited throughout the 1930s, for example the Women’s Industrial Arts Society which ran until World War II.
A great number of women printmakers such as Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor, Dorrit Black, Sybil Craig, Ethel Spowers, Christian Waller, Jessie Trail and many more; came onto the modern art scene transforming not only printmaking practices but also other mediums such as painting.
[1] Roger Butler, The Prints Of Margaret Preston: A Catalogue Raisonne, 1st ed. (Port Melbourne, Victoria: Thames & Hudson, 2005), 26.
[2] Thea Proctor and Janda Gooding, Thea Proctor, 1st ed. ([Perth]: Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1982), 4.
[3] Keith Smith, The Great Depression: Australian Battlers Remember, 1st ed. (Milsons Point, N.S.W.: Random House Australia, 2003), 4.
[4] Smith, The Great Depression: Australian Battlers Remember, 4.
[5] Smith, The Great Depression: Australian Battlers Remember, 4
[6] Smith, The Great Depression: Australian Battlers Remember, 3.
[7] 'Made By Hand: Exhibitions Of Women’s Work: Suggestions For Hobbies', The Sydney Morning Herald, 1936, 12.
[8] 'Made By Hand: Exhibitions Of Women’s Work: Suggestions For Hobbies', The Sydney Morning Herald, 12.
[9] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 4.
[10] Elizabeth Butel and Margaret Preston, Margaret Preston, The Art Of Constant Rearrangement, 1st ed. (Ringwood, Vic.: Viking in association with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1986), 2.
[11] Elizabeth Butel, Margaret Preston, 1st ed. (Sydney: ETT Imprint, 1995), 2.
[12] Denise Mimmocchi and Deborah Edwards, 'Margaret Preston', Art & Australia, 2005, 103.
[13] Roger Butler, Printed Images by Australian Artists 1885-1955, 1st ed. (Canberra, A.C.T.: National Gallery of Australia, 2007), 166.
[14] Butler, Printed Images By Australian Artists 1885-1955, 169.
[15] Hal Missingham, 'Margaret Preston', Art & Australia, 1963, 100.
[16] 'Art In Australia: Margaret Preston Number', The Register, 1927, 5.
[17] Missingham, 'Margaret Preston', Art & Australia, 90.
[18] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 4.
[19] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 2.
[20] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 2.
[21] Alan McCulloch and Susan McCulloch, The Encyclopedia Of Australian Art, 1st ed. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994), 582.
[22] Butler, Printed Images By Australian Artists 1885-1955, 166.
[23] Ian Chilvers and John Glaves-Smith, "Contemporary Group." In A Dictionary Of Modern And Contemporary Art, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
[24] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 5.
[25] Proctor and Gooding, Thea Proctor, 1.
[26] Butler, Printed: Images By Australian Artists 1885-1955, 166.
Written by Hannah Mitchell 2014