1927 Antique print after Margaret Preston’s woodblock, Still Life, framed artwork

An original 1927 period colour offset print after Margaret Preston’s coloured woodcut The Plate—Still Life, identified as Plate No. 32 and initialled “MP” within the image, professionally presented in a black frame with layered cream mount.

A wonderfully compact example of Preston’s Australian modernism, the composition transforms a domestic still life of plate, vessel, flowers and fruit into a vigorous pattern of heavy black contours and saturated pink, green, orange and yellow.

32cm x 32cm frame

12cm x 12cm artwork 

Artist biography
Margaret Preston (1875–1963) was one of the leading figures of Australian modernism and a major force in the revival of printmaking in Australia. Born in Adelaide and extensively travelled in Europe and Asia, Preston developed a distinctive visual language informed by modern European art and Japanese woodblock printing, favouring flattened space, bold outlines and strong decorative colour. From the 1920s she became particularly associated with woodcuts and still lifes, using flowers, domestic objects, Sydney landscapes and Australian native flora to argue for a recognisably Australian modern art. Her work was widely reproduced and discussed during her lifetime, including in the influential 1927 Margaret Preston Number of Art in Australia, and she is now represented in major Australian public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales and National Gallery of Victoria.