Opening on 18 May 2024, Geelong Gallery presents its next major ticketed exhibition: Cutting Through Time— Cressida Campbell, Margaret Preston, and the Japanese Print.
This exceptionally beautiful Geelong Gallery-curated exhibition examines the influence of Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) on the famed contemporary Australian painter and printmaker Cressida Campbell (born 1960) and the groundbreaking modernist painter and printmaker Margaret Preston (1875– 1963).
This will be the first significant exhibition in Victoria for more than a decade focused on Margaret Preston, who is one of Australia’s most significant and beloved modernist printmakers.
woodcut, printed in black ink, hand coloured with gouache on cream Japanese laid paper; edition unknown, hand coloured
Art Gallery of New South Wales Purchased 1964
Equally it will celebrate the remarkable work of contemporary artist, Cressida Campbell. Seeing their work together alongside the serene aesthetics and sophistication of historical Japanese ukiyo-e woodcut prints will offer new opportunities for visitors to celebrate their work.
Cutting Through Time—Cressida Campbell, Margaret Preston, and the Japanese Print, takes its lead from Geelong Gallery’s significant print holdings, chiefly Margaret Preston’s dazzlingly beautiful hand-coloured woodcut Fuchsia and balsam 1928 (purchased in 1982), and a suite of prized Japanese ukiyo-e prints from the late 18th to mid-19th centuries (in the Gallery’s collection since the 1950s).
Private collection Image courtesy of Cressida Campbell and Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane
Margaret Preston emerged as one of Australia’s most recognised and experimental printmakers during the early twentieth century, and, like many Western artists of the era (and late 19th century), she was deeply influenced by the traditions and aesthetics of Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts. Similarly, the exquisite painting and printmaking of Cressida Campbell reveals her fascination with colour, patterning, and compositions of ukiyo-e, to the point that we see in her painted woodblocks and woodcut prints renditions of works from her own collection of ukiyo-e.
The exhibition, curated by Geelong Gallery Senior Curator, Lisa Sullivan, will include a number of Preston’s earliest examples in which she applies a Japanese-inspired woodcut process and aesthetic to hand-coloured prints. Preston’s application of these principles to her images of Australian landscapes and native flora will make for a captivating exhibition, particularly in the context of Cressida Campbell’s decades-long examination and exquisite picturing of Australian native flora, the bush, and her interiors and immediate environment.
© Margaret Preston/Copyright Agency
The exhibition will present Campbell’s and Preston’s diverse approaches to painted woodblock and printmaking, and adoption of Japanese ukiyo-e compositional approaches, as part of their wider interest in and respect for diverse cultures. Works will be drawn from the significant holdings of Preston’s works in the National Gallery of Australia and Art Gallery of New South Wales, as well as many private collectors of Campbell’s highly sought-after prints and painted woodblocks.
Tickets: adult $20; gallery member $12.50; concession $15; senior (Tuesdays only) $15. Child $9.
For more details, visit: www.Geelonggallery.org.au/cuttingthroughtime.
