MARGARET PRESTON ART AND LIFE

Transcription

1 SECTION 2 MARGARET PRESTON ART AND LIFE STAGE 5 HISTORY Margaret Preston: art & life Education Kit Art Gallery of New South Wales SECTION 2 : 63

2 Source work investigation THE SIGNIFICANCE AND CONTRIBUTION OF MARGARET PRESTON INSTRUCTIONS: View and read the sources below. Complete the questions and activities that follow. Aboriginal bark ornament 1940 also known as Aboriginal hunt; Aboriginal bark ornament on tapa; Aboriginal hunt design woodcut on hand-coloured tapa cloth, 35.4 x 34.8 cm image; 37.8 x 37 cm sheet National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Tallong road 1941 oil on canvas, 43 x 35.8 cm Private collection SOURCE 1: Artworks by Margaret Preston Flannel flowers 1924 oil on canvas, 55 x 45 cm The University of Sydney Art Collection, transferred from Sydney College of Advanced Education 1990 Aboriginal design 1943 colour masonite cut, 34.5 x 33 cm image; 41.5 x 39.2 cm sheet. Private collection (Nine Aboriginal designs) c1927 also known as Designs with initials iii (Totem, Central Australia), gouache on paper, 13 x 18 cm; Art Gallery of Western Australia, purchased with funds from the Sir Claude Hotchin Art Foundation 1998 Gum blossom 1928 also known as Gum blossoms woodcut, hand-coloured, 27.4 x 26.3 cm (irreg) image; 38.7 x 30.6 cm (irreg) sheet Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased 1964 Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden 1950 also known as Adam and Eve colour stencil, gouache on thin black card, 49.7 x 49.7 cm image; 52.8 x 51.5 cm sheet Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased 1950 Banksia 1953 oil on canvas, 48.8 x 65.3 cm University of Newcastle collection, presented to the Newcastle Teachers College by teachers attending post college courses, January 1954 NSW and West Australian banksia 1929 also known as Western Australian banksia; Banksias oil on canvas, 65.6 x 53.5 cm Queensland Art Gallery, purchased 1972 Wheel flower 1929 wood engraving, black ink, hand coloured in gouache on brown mulberry paper 44.1 x 44.6cm Purchased 1929 Art Gallery of New South Wales Sturt s desert pea 1930 oil on canvas, 54.3 x 50.8 cm Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, the gift of Peter Osbourn in memory of his father Prof T G B Osborn, who gathered specimens for the artist at Koonamore Identify at least three native Australian plants from Sources 1.1 to 1.6. Identify at least three native Australian animals from Sources 1.7 to Using Sources 1.7 to 1.12, explain how Aboriginal art and customs have influenced the work of Preston. Use any three sources above to: (ii) identify Preston s cultural interests (ii) explain why Preston s artwork is important to Australia s cultural history. Margaret Preston: art & life Education Kit Art Gallery of New South Wales SECTION 2 : 64

3 SOURCE 2: Letters by Margaret Preston Source 2.1 Margaret Preston to Ian Mudie: 30 March 1942 your poetry I like best people who want Australians to be Australians the patriot has always been stoned I am absolutely insular I am and feel only Australian and feel anything less than two generations have a smudge of foreignness about them at present I m having a show at the National Gallery [today known as the Art Gallery of New South Wales]. As you can see one Dobell is paired with me an artist with no Australianness whatsoever, pure Daumier and so loved of the intelligentsia who love only work derived from the continent how can any good come out of a country that feeds, clothes, breeds and buries you. So I feel slightly ostracised Source 2.2 Margaret Preston to Rex Ingamells: 13 September 1941 your excellent Jindy books and those by Hudson! I value them immensely. I had not read many of these poems so they come as a great delight to me apart from their quality it is the fact that the young people of Australia are at last owning a country I mean no illwill (sic) to our forefathers bot I insist on being alive and not a relic England is not for the 3rd and 4th generation Australian at present I m under a cloud I ve had the audacity I have had an Australian Aboriginal landscape bought by Yale University Gallery for the permanent collection a chilly reception by the Australian press has been the result anyway the press are never art critics only paid hacks Use Source 2.1 Why does Preston like Mudie s poetry? According to Preston, how many generations does it take to be completely Australian? Why does Preston dislike fellow Australian artist William Dobell? Why does Preston feel ostracised? Use Source 2.2 Why does Preston like the Jindy books? Does Preston think England is relevant to the true Australian? Explain your answer Why is Preston under a cloud? Margaret Preston: art & life Education Kit Art Gallery of New South Wales SECTION 2 : 65

4 SOURCE 3: Articles written by Margaret Preston Source 3.1 Australian Artists versus Art Art in Australia 3rd Series, No. 26. December 1928 Australia is a t present complacently sitting on a stool declaring that her youth is preventing her from doing anything. It is, Wait until we are older and then you will see at present we are so young. Not so you, dear Australia, but that unless some bright young students settle down to try, to originate, to think, and to ignore their Cook s tourist experience in the galleries and schools of old countries, Australia will be simply a replica of America One great trouble in this young country is that there is a certain diffidence in the Australian mind as to whether, owing to its extreme youth and distance from Grandpa G Britain, it is possible to produce anything so good as is done by those important people. Source 3.2 The Indigenous Art of Australia, Art in Australia 3rd Series, No. 11. March 1925 I have gone to the art of a people who had never seen or known anything different from themselves, and were accustomed always to use the same symbols to express themselves. These are the Australian Aboriginals, and it is only from the art of such people in any land that a national art can spring. Later comes the individual or individuals who with conscious knowledge (education) use these symbols that are their heritage, and thus a great national art is founded. It is not from book-learning or professional lore which is at the disposal of intellectuals that new life can be drawn. It is on the primitive natural forms that we must depend. In returning to primitive art it should be remembered that it is to be used as a starting point only for renewal of growth Therefore I feel no loss of dignity in studying and applying myself to the art of the aboriginals of Australia. Use Source 3.1 According to Preston, what is the problem with Australian art? Use Source 3.2 Why does Preston value Aboriginal art? Source 3.3 Paintings in Arnhem Land, Art in Australia 3rd Series, No. 81. November 1940 It has been for a long time the accepted idea of the world in general that the Australian aboriginal is in the lowest grade of humanity. This unfortunate impression should be completely altered after a study of his pictorial and decorative art. The work of the Australian aboriginal has no display about it It is never repetitive. The geometrical designs are balanced, but they are never duplicated. Their caves, rocks, and bark, and they themselves, are painted, either for totemic purposes of for ornament, with strong outlines and clean, unmuddled colour. Use Source 3.3 What does Preston admire about Aboriginal art? Margaret Preston: art & life Education Kit Art Gallery of New South Wales SECTION 2 : 66

5 SOURCE 4: Quotes by Critics and Supporters Source 4.1 Thea Proctor artist and friend 1927 This indeed is a brain with unlimited invention, which has never once repeated itself we have a distinguished and original artist in Australia an artist with abundant vitality the intellectual gift of invention and an emotional colour sense which amounts to genius. Source 4.2 Norman Lindsay artist 1924 I offered Syd Smith a full exhibition [of my work] but on condition that some restraint was exercised over the exhibition of crude colour, particularly the chintz pattern stuff of Mrs Preston. Source 4.3 Sydney Ure Smith artist, art entrepreneur and publisher of Home magazine and Art in Australia, 1938 Its as well the male part of the Society of Artists selection committee were non-aggressive because we ve had to put up with Mrs Preston and Thea Proctor They are personal at all times and most dogmatic. They cannot be impersonal as most men can. Source 4.4 Leon Gellert co-editor Art in Australia 1967 In her heyday she was a powerhouse of rebellion. Source 4.5 Janine Burke art historian and author 1980 She was a voluble and tough-minded woman, a prolific painter-printmaker, an immensely readable and provocative critic, a champion of Aboriginal art and Australian culture, and an adventuresome traveller I imagine Margaret Preston even now, as terrifying, with her wit and her formidable personality. Source 4.6 Bernard Smith art historian 1989 If one considers her work both in terms of its inherent aesthetic achievement and its contribution to an independent Australian tradition, I doubt whether there was anyone at that time to equal her. Source 4.7 Hetti Perkins Curator Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art AGNSW 2005 To Aboriginal eyes it reads as a scrambled orthography of vaguely familiar words, or a discordant symphony where the notes don t ring quite true. Preston s passionate attempts, while well intentioned, were doomed to fail ultimately because they are meaningless to Aboriginal people not unlike the contemporaneous government policy of assimilation. Use Sources 4.1 to 4.7. Complete the following evidence table Margaret Preston: art & life Education Kit Art Gallery of New South Wales SECTION 2 : 67

6 Evidence table Why they criticised / praised Evidence from the source Preston s Critics Preston s Supporters Select a range of sources (from Sources 1 to 4 above or other sources in this kit) to answer the following question. Outline and explain Margaret Preston s significance and contribution to Australia s cultural history. Margaret Preston: art & life Education Kit Art Gallery of New South Wales SECTION 2 : 68

7 Stage 5 History assignment Self portrait 1930 oil on canvas 61.3 x 51.1cm Gift of the artist at the request of the Trustees 1930 Art Gallery of New South Wales ASSESMENT TASK: Area of Assessment and Weightings Area of Assessment: Research, Oral & ICT Weighting: 30% Due Date: ASSESSMENT TASK Margaret Preston: Australian Cultural Identity TASK You and a partner are curators at the State Art Gallery. You are currently working together developing an exhibition on the artist Margaret Preston. The focus of the exhibition is her artwork and also the influence she had on Australian Cultural Identity. As part of your exhibition development research, you are to look for letters and articles by Preston, comments from critics and supporters, as well as her artworks and information about them. Research source suggestions: this education kit (sources and Exhibition Process page-----, the exhibition catalogue, the exhibition, the Gallery Library and Archive, the online Gallery collection search, world wide web. Requirements 1. Written Summary: Write a 1-2 page summary of your exhibition (typed, size 12 font, 1.5 line spacing) Which will: describe how and where you located your selected items in the exhibition explain why you included these items in the exhibition include a bibliography 2. Oral / Visual Proposal: Present 3-4 minute oral / visual proposal for the exhibition (using PowerPoint) Which will: provide an overview of the layout of your exhibition highlight important exhibition artworks and items. explain why you have selected this material. explain why Margaret Preston has been selected as the focus of the exhibition. (You must comment on her significance and contribution to Australian cultural identity). OUTCOMES TO BE ASSESSED M5.4 sequences major historical events to show an understanding of continuity, change and causation M5.5 identifies, comprehends and evaluates historical sources M5.8 locates, selects and organises relevant historical information from a number of sources, including ICT, to undertake historical inquiry M5.10 selects and uses appropriate oral, written and other forms, including ICT, to communicate effectively about the past for different audiences Margaret Preston: art & life Education Kit Art Gallery of New South Wales SECTION 2 : 69

8 Marking Criteria 1. WRITTEN SUMMARY Criteria Marks Provides a detailed, logical and coherent description of the location of the exhibit items. Provides a sustained, logical and well-structured explanation for the inclusion of each exhibit item. Provides a summary that is 1-2 pages, typed, using size 12 font and 1.5 line spacing. Includes an accurately formatted bibliography Provides a logical and coherent description of the location of the exhibit items. Provides a logical and structured explanation for the inclusion of each exhibit item (may have some description). Provides a summary that is 1-2 pages, typed, using size 12 font and 1.5 line spacing. Includes a formatted bibliography. 7 8 Provides a limited description of the location of the exhibit items. Provides a description of each exhibit item (may attempt to explain why some items were included). Provides a written summary (may not conform to specifications in assignment outline) Includes a limited bibliography. 5 6 Provides a very limited description exhibit items. Provides a very limited written summary (may be brief) 1 4 Comments: Margaret Preston: art & life Education Kit Art Gallery of New South Wales SECTION 2 : 70

9 Marking Criteria 2. ORAL / VISUAL PRESENTATION Criteria Marks Provides a logical and clear layout for the exhibition Clearly identifies, comprehends and evaluates exhibit items Provides an excellent explanation of Preston s contribution to Australian cultural identity by using detailed, relevant and accurate historical information to support a sustained, logical and well-structured presentation. Uses Power point effectively as a presentation tool Communicates ideas fluently, speaks confidently, maintains excellent volume, tone and pace of voice and speaks within the maximum time limit. Engages the audience in the presentation Provides a clear layout for the exhibition Identifies and comprehends exhibit items, with some evaluation Provides a good explanation of Preston s contribution to Australian cultural identity by using relevant and accurate historical information to support a logical and structured presentation. Uses Power point effectively, for the most part, as a presentation tool Communicates ideas with some fluency, maintains good volume, tone and pace of voice and speaks within the maximum time limit. Engages the audience in the presentation Provides a layout for the exhibition (may not be clear or logical) Identifies, comprehends and describes historical sources Provides a description of Preston s contribution to Australian cultural identity and uses some relevant historical information to support a presentation with some structure Uses Power point as a presentation tool (may not be used effectively) Stilted communication of ideas, uneven volume, tone and pace of voice and may not speak within the maximum time limit. Some engagement of the audience in the presentation Provides a limited layout for the exhibition Identifies some historical sources Provides a limited description of Preston s contribution to Australian cultural identity and uses some relevant historical information, may be disjointed Limited use of Power point as a presentation tool Limited communication of ideas, uneven volume, tone and pace of voice and may not speak within the maximum time limit. Limited engagement of the audience in the presentation 6 10 Provides a very limited layout for the exhibition (or not at all) Largely irrelevant and disjointed information Very limited communication of ideas Very limited engagement of the audience in the presentation 1 5 Comments: Margaret Preston: art & life Education Kit Art Gallery of New South Wales SECTION 2 : 71