How Did Margaret Prestons Influence Australian Society

For all artists, the “way life was seen” played a significant role in how the artists constructed and portrayed their artwork. In postwar Australian society, women played a significant role for the country’s growth. While men were at war, the women had to fill in the jobs, and Australia was basically being run by more women than men. This became more aware throughout the 1980s where feminism became more internationally aware. Margaret Preston’s husband, allowed Margaret to be free to do as she wanted during this time, differing from the stereotyped world where the men would work and the women would stay at home. This meant Preston was able to chase her dreams and become a significant artist in Australian society. Throughout Margaret Preston’s life, the place she settled

Following her mother’s death in 1903, Preston travelled with student Bessie Davidson to Europe where they stayed until 1907, studying in Munich and Paris, and travelling in Italy, Spain and Holland. Because she felt much better than those in Germany, she moved to Paris. While becoming in contact with the works of French Post Impressionists, Cezanne, the most architectural of all artists, such as Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, and Roualt, she became quickly aware how to be the best. By learning off these artists, Preston’s style became very reserved, structured, and closely linked to the elements and principles or art. This experience in Paris, also lead her to become aware of the Japanese style of art which featured asymmetry, pattern as the dominant element of design, close up observations of natural patterns, the celebration of particular flora, and a daring engagement with deliberate primitivism. After this, travelling back to Mosman, Preston became a leading figure in the Australian art