Given Perth’s cultural isolation from mainstream Australian art in the early 1960s, she was the first sculptor to introduce modernist ideas and became an important link to contemporary European practice at that time.
She played a prominent part in the aesthetic development of Perth during the decades between 1950 and 1980, a significant period for both artistic growth and cultural identity in WA. For over a decade she made an important contribution as a lecturer at WAIT (now Curtin) where she influenced many of the current generation of contemporary sculptors. She has always maintained contact with her national and international peers.
She created an important body of work, much of it in high profile public positions in the city of Perth. Her Pioneer Woman is the centrepiece of the public space in Kings Park. Despite her work being an integral part of the landscape in the City of Perth few people are now familiar with the wider framework of her career. Now in her mid-eighties, Margaret lives in the South West where she has continued to practise as a highly professional artist for many years.
The exhibition will include sculptures, associated drawings, and recent paintings. It will be accompanied by a new publication exploring the work of Margaret Priest in its historical context.
Margaret Priest, Fragment, 1960
driftwood, 99 x 25 x 29 cm
Margaret Priest, Lake at Twizel
acrylic on card, 36 x 41 cm, 1993
Margaret Priest, Mount Cook
acrylic on board, 36 x 91 cm, 1993
$6,000
Margaret Priest, Celebrating Naidoc Week
acrylic on canvas, 90 x 160 cm, 2006
$12,000
Margaret Priest, Remembering Landsdale: Bulldozer Rampant, Felix Dormant, Birds Insouciant, Strelitzia Defiant
acrylic on canvas, 117 x 183 cm, 1994
$15,000
Margaret Priest, Ragged Range
acrylic on canvas, 90 x 140 cm, 1999
$10,000
Margaret Priest, Purnululu (Don’t sit on the Spinifex, Margaret!)
acrylic on board, 57 x 73 cm, 1999
$2,400
Margaret Priest, Sundowners
acrylic on canvas, 129 x 100 cm, 2000
$12,000
Margaret Priest, Troubled Waters
acrylic on canvas, 100 x 133 cm, 2005
$10,000
Margaret Priest, Mini Palms
acrylic on board, 64 x 50 cm, 1999
$2,400
Margaret Priest, Kununurra
acrylic on board, 49 x 63 cm, 1999
$2,400
Margaret Priest, Allie’s House
acrylic on canvas, 64 x 76 cm, 2005
$3,200
Margaret Priest, Waiting for Me
oil on canvas, 92 x 156 cm, 2009
$12,000
Margaret Priest, Lilies at Twizel
acrylic on cork, 41 x 36 cm, 1993
$900
Margaret Priest, Augusta Garden
oil on canvas, 92 x 153 cm, 2009
$12,000
Margaret Priest, Strelitzia Still Life (work in progress)
acrylic on canvas, 122 x 57 cm, 2009
$8,000
Margaret Priest, The Art Lesson
acrylic on canvas, 77 x 66, 2006
$3,200
Margaret Priest, Remembering Landsdale: Bulldozer Rampant, Felix Dormant, Birds Insouciant, Strelitzia Defiant
acrylic on canvas, 117 x 183 cm, 1994
$15,000
