B. 1875 – 1963

Margaret Preston was a key figure in the development of Australian modernism. She was renowned for her paintings and woodcuts of local landscapes and native flora, championing a distinctly Australian style that took inspiration from modernist, Aboriginal and Asian art. 

Born in Adelaide, Preston studied with W Lister Lister in Sydney, at the National Gallery of Victoria schools in Melbourne and at the Adelaide School of Design. She travelled to Europe in 1904 studying for three years in Munich and Paris, and made a second trip in 1912 where she saw the post-Impressionist exhibition organised by Roger Fry in London. Here, Preston also exhibited paintings at the New Salon in Paris and the Royal Academy. 

After settling back in Sydney, Australia, Preston honed her modernist style, focusing on bold geometric shapes and black outlines. For Preston, still lifes were “really laboratory tables on which aesthetic problems can be isolated”. Represented across public collections, no history of Australian modernism is replete with Preston. 

 
To read a more in-depth biography of the artist, click here.