Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

for conveying an incisive study of form and broad simplification of colour — characteristics of Modernism. Insisting on the importance of design as the structural basis of artistic practice, it was natural that the technique of woodblock or linocut printing would find itself employed for magazine covers and illustrations, as Roger Butler noted in 1995: Many of the wood and linocut works produced by artists in the 1920s and 1930s were printed in magazines direct from the original blocks and, as such, had a wide circulation. There was also an element of the Arts and Crafts movement in these works — the artist taking responsibility for at least one part of the production.5 The Home journal was the ideal vehicle for Thea Proctor's stylish cover designs, sporting elegant women wearing the new svelte designs of the 1920s. Here she directed her attention exclusively to women, conveying her views on quality and taste through many articles, interviews and illustrations. From early on in her career, the artist focused on figurative imagery, depicting mainly women in decorative compositions. For this magazine Proctors sketches often had figures outfitted in fancy, theatrical dress. Her love of historical costume had much in common with her friend George Lambert's high Edwardian style and it informed her own particular brand of Modernism. The swing (Queensland Art Gallery) shows this convergence of traditionalism and contemporary idiom in Proctor's work particularly well. The woodcut, printed black like a Ukiyo-e key block and hand- coloured in watercolour with vivid hues, was produced in 1925, the year she started using this technique. The image was apparently intended for children's nursery decorations and the carefree scene of gambolling young adults amusing a delighted child would seem to strike just the right mood. Apreparatory drawing for the composition is privately held in Brisbane and the resultant print follows it exactly. Roger Butler observed that 'Unlike Preston, whose prints show their woody origin, the character of the woodcut was not important to Proctor and the accidental had no place'.6 In contrast to the robust assertiveness of Preston's woodcuts which promised innovative developments, Thea Proctor's prints were cool, decorative images for modern interiors. The swing was exhibited in their joint exhibition of 1925. It was one of three hand-coloured woodcuts by Proctor who was chiefly represented in the show by pencil or tinted drawings and lithographs. Margaret Preston boldly championed the woodcut technique on this occasion by exhibiting only works in this medium. The prices for each artist's printswere comparable, with Proctor charging three guineas (the top end of the range) for The swing 7 Through the exhibition and publication of such prints these women courted wide public recognition. From the mid-1920s their relief prints were regularly reproduced in issues of not only the quarterly Art in Australia, the chief forum for art coverage in this country, and The Home, but also the Wentworth Magazine and Woman's World. The latter magazine even gave instructions on how to frame the reproductions for home decoration. The artists made regular allusions to each other in their endeavour to combat the ubiquitous imitations of 'Impressionism' holding sway in Australian art. Preston painted a still life, Thea Proctor's Tea Party (The Art Gallery of New South Wales), in 1924 and Proctor wrote 'An artist's appreciation of Margaret Preston' in the December 1927 issue of Art in Australia. The issue was devoted to Preston and featured many reproductions of her prints and paintings including a geometric flower arrangement on the cover. Left Margaret Preston Thea Proctor's Tea Party 1924 Oil on canvas on paperboard 55.9 X 45.7cm The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Facing page Margaret Preston Australia 1875-1963 Jug o f flowers c.1929 Woodcut, hand- coloured on thin laid Oriental paper 30.7X 23.6cm Purchased 1976 Queensland Art Gallery At an early stage in her career, Margaret Preston's preference for still life, flower painting and woodcut prints was recognised as being central to her artistic concerns. Through such subject matter she could experiment with aspects of modernist representation and at the same time acknowledge its identification with the female gender. Colour woodblock prints replaced etching in her oeuvre c.1916-19, with several focusing on domestic settings with vases of flowers and a tea service. The lines incised into soft wood stimulated her ideas on design and abstraction and she enjoyed the physical nature of the process.8 Of the over four hundred print designs she produced, the majority are fromwoodblocks. Preston's image Jug o fflowers c.1929 (QAG) retains evidence of the artist's interest in England's Omega Workshops (1913-19) and artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell and their champion Roger Fry. Vigorously cut into a bold, decoratively massed composition, it is less severe than her still- life groupings from 1927, which had been panned by most critics. She took a step back from stark geometric statements to produce works such as this more winsome print, coloured by hand. The portfolio Margaret Preston: Recent Paintings, 1929, with text edited by Sydney Ure Smith and Leon Geliert, was accompanied by either a hand-coloured print or black and white version of Jug offlowers.9 The publication of the portfolio closely followed a successful solo exhibition at the Grosvenor Galleries and assured the artist a premier place in the Australian art world. Both Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor were powerful forces in Sydney during the 1920s when these two relief prints, Jug o f flowers and The swing, were produced. They were women at the vanguard of a modernising visual culture which was not grandiose but which refocused attention on the Arts and Crafts Movement. Not only concerned with painting, through their commitment to the graphic arts, to design and art education the two artists became enduring models for creative women beyond their generation. Anne Kirker is Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs at the Queensland Art Gallery. 126 BROUGHT TO LIGHT: Australian Art 1850-1965