Margaret Preston’s Monotypes: Looking Through The Landscape
Date
2002
Authors
Speck, C.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
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Conference paper
Citation
Art Association Conference, 2002, 6-7 December, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia . Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference (2003 : Sydney, New South Wales)
Statement of Responsibility
Catherine Speck
Conference Name
Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference (2003 : Sydney, New South Wales)
Abstract
Margaret Preston has not fared well in writings on Australian art after the Aboriginal Art revolution. She is an easy focus for claims of appropriation, which in one sense are true, but in another sense are a ‘red herring’ for her art, which was attempting to bridge the Indigenous/non Indigenous gap. This paper will explore her landscape works of the 1940s, produced as monotypes, and the following will be explored: Are these works merely another example of the ‘unlearning’ that abstract expressionists, for instance, engaged in, or is it possible to read them through the linguistic lens of W.J.T. Mitchell as a template for seeing and a medium of cultural expression?