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=== Group ===
=== Group ===


* 1961, 16 April: Contemporary Art Society members [[Suzanne Dance]], Patti G. Holden, Margaret Dredge, [[Robert Rooney]], Patrick Krebs, Martin Dubaut, Barry Skinner, Bernie Bragg, Alfred Watson, S. L. Waldron, Trevor Lahiff, Brian Crawford, Peter Wood, and W. G. Elliott. Eastside Gallery, 3 Palmer St., Jolimont <ref>{{Cite news |last=Shore |first=Arnold |date=5 April 1961 |title=Art Shows : Painter's Strictly Ordered Forms |pages=2 |work=The Age}}</ref>
* 1961, 16 April: Eastside Gallery East Melbourne, Contemporary Art Society<ref name=":0" />
* 1961, August: Eastside Gallery East Melbourne Beaumaris Art Group<ref name=":0" />
* 1961, August: Eastside Gallery East Melbourne Beaumaris Art Group<ref name=":0" />
* 1961, 21 August: 50 members in Melbourne Contemporary Artists 1962 Exhibition, including women [[Mary McQueen]], [[Edith Wall]], Clothilde Atyeo, Valeria Albiston, Christine Aldor, Mignonne Armstrong, Barbara Brash, Margaret Benwell, Yvonne Cohen, Joyce Donovan, Margaret Dredge, [[Dorothea Francis]]. Peggy Fauser, Marion Fletcher, Nancy Grant, Rosa Garlick, Inez Hutchison, Evelyn McCutcheon, Joan Marks, Maidie McGowan, [[Lucy Newell]], Yvonne Pettengell, Guelda Pyke and [[Ellen Rubbo]]. opened by Prof. [[Joseph Burke Burke]],<ref>{{Citation |last=Palmer |first=Sheridan |title=Burke, Sir Joseph Terence (1913–1992) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/burke-sir-joseph-terence-16323 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en |access-date=2022-04-04}}</ref> Argus Gallery Melbourne <ref>{{Cite news |date=14 Aug 1962 |title=Contemporary Art Exhibition |pages=10 |work=The Age}}</ref>
* 1961, 21 August: Argus Gallery Melbourne Melbourne Contemporary Artists<ref name=":0" />
* 1961, 6 November: Argus Gallery, Melbourne C.A.S. (Vic)<ref name=":0" />
* 1961, 6 November: Argus Gallery, Melbourne C.A.S. (Vic)<ref name=":0" />
* 1962, 21 March: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Crouch Prize Exhibition<ref name=":0" />
* 1962, 21 March: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Crouch Prize Exhibition<ref name=":0" />

Revision as of 23:02, 4 April 2022

Margaret Dredge (27 January 1928–3 September, 2001) was an Australian painter and printmaker active from 1950.

Early life

Dredge was born in Murrumbeena in 1928, daughter of war veteran accountant William Arthur Vickery who brought her up after her mother Annie (née Ashby) and her second child died in 1930 during childbirth.[1] They moved frequently, boarding mainly in Albert Park and South Yarra, then settled in bayside Sandringham where she attended the State School. Her father's fortunes as a freelance accountant improved despite the depression and starting in 1940 she studied and attained her leaving certificate at Methodist Ladies College, and left with ambitions to study art at the National Gallery School, but at her father's insistence went into secretarial work at the Commonwealth Bank. Over 6 months in 1948-50 she worked as a secretary in Sydney before returning to nurse her ageing father. At the Commonwealth Bank she met banker and builder Peter Dredge, whom she married in 1950. Her children Rhonda and Lesley were born 1951 and 1954 respectively.

Training

In the mid-1950s Dredge studied initially with Inez Hutchinson and made figurative works before moving on to abstraction. By 1958 she had become a member of, and exhibited with, the Beaumaris Art Group, and after the birth of her third child Peter in February 1959, she took art classes with Australian abstract painter Robert Grieve which encouraged her move to abstraction.[2] In the early 1960s joined the Contemporary Artists Society (CAS), and was on its council, and the Melbourne Contemporary Artists (MCA),[3] greatly expanding her contact with the art world; between 1961-1979 she held five solo shows, the first two being in 1964 at Peter Burrows Gallery and Three Sisters Gallery, and entered art awards.

Career

Dredge began teaching at the Beaumaris Art Group and held life classes at own home. She was befriended by architect Gavin Hughes when he purchased a work from her, and his encouragement and mentorship furthered her exposure to literature, music and architecture. Hughes and his partner Max Dingle in 2008 bequeathed most of Dredge's works exhibited at her 2012 retrospective to the Shoalhaven City Arts Centre.[4]

Favourable reviews of her 1965 one-person exhibition at the Argus Gallery by Alan McCulloch and Bernard Smith enhanced her reputation, and when she showed at Pinacotheca in 1967 Ken Bandman set her amongst the 'post-painterly' abstractionists.

"The main characteristic of her work is the severe discipline of line and her brush work. Squares, lines and other geometrical patterns are crossing, overlaying or cutting each other, in bright and vibrant colours, mainly pleasing to the eye. There is an indication of texture there, but texture is not Miss Dredge’s forte. It is rather that rigidness of line, that hard-edgedness, and the definite intent of her design that make her work come alive."[5]

Also during this period and until the mid-seventies, to support her children's education and with her ailing father living with the family until his death in 1975, she returned to work as a secretary. She became politically active, joining Jean McLean's and Joan Coxsedge's Save Our Sons to actively oppose the Vietnam War and through her letter-writing to newspapers protested artists' treatment by critics,[6] and supported feminist issues, particularly abortion law reform.[7]

In 1973 Dredge deviated from hard-edge abstract painting and, switching from oils to acrylics, made work that was expressionist. A trip to Indonesia 1976/77 may have influenced this change. She held a last solo exhibition at Gryphon Gallery in 1979, of which Graeme Sturgeon commented that; “with this exhibition, Margaret Dredge has assumed a place among the top dozen women working in Melbourne” [8] She assisted Ken Scarlett, director of Gryphon Gallery with his compilation of his Australian Sculptors.[9] The Dredge family relocated in 1980 to inner-suburban Richmond, and since at first she lacked a studio, she studied etching with Bill Young, Maggie May, Geoffrey Goldie, Jon Cattapan and John Spooner. In a new studio built by her husband in 1983, Dredge was able to work more intensively and on a larger scale. Her painting became more calligraphic with a move to all-over abstract compositions in the last years of her life and until she ceased painting in 1997 due to a cardiac condition.

Writing in the 1990s, art historian Christopher Heathcote responded to Dredge's late work:

"The solemn emotional import of these, her final completed works, is unmistakable. This is the visual equivalent of blues music. The paint is gathered into simple, yet inexplicably moving structures of sombre form that act upon the sensitive viewer as a psychological medium, a melancholy transport. Technically, it would be incorrect to describe the broad strokes in black and white acrylic as calligraphic; and yet these late works by the artist are, indeed, true to the intention of Chinese calligraphy. There is a raw emotional honesty to the movement of the brush: it seems directly to convey the inner emotions of the solitary artist, her inner passions, thoughts, joys, and anxieties."[2]

Husband Peter died in March 2000, and Margaret herself died on 3 September 2002, leaving a number of works that had yet to be exhibited. She was survived by her children who arranged for her late work to be exhibited and retrospectives to be shown.

Exhibitions

Solo

  • 1964, 14 March: Peter Burrows Gallery, Queens Rd, Melbourne (first solo)[1]
  • 1964 Three Sisters Gallery Brighton[10]
  • 1964, 19 July: Argus Gallery, Melbourne[11]
  • 1967, 24 September – 13 October. Margaret Dredge, Paintings[12][13][14][15]
  • 1979, 26 March: Gryphon Gallery[1]

Group

  • 1961, 16 April: Contemporary Art Society members Suzanne Dance, Patti G. Holden, Margaret Dredge, Robert Rooney, Patrick Krebs, Martin Dubaut, Barry Skinner, Bernie Bragg, Alfred Watson, S. L. Waldron, Trevor Lahiff, Brian Crawford, Peter Wood, and W. G. Elliott. Eastside Gallery, 3 Palmer St., Jolimont [16]
  • 1961, August: Eastside Gallery East Melbourne Beaumaris Art Group[1]
  • 1961, 21 August: 50 members in Melbourne Contemporary Artists 1962 Exhibition, including women Mary McQueen, Edith Wall, Clothilde Atyeo, Valeria Albiston, Christine Aldor, Mignonne Armstrong, Barbara Brash, Margaret Benwell, Yvonne Cohen, Joyce Donovan, Margaret Dredge, Dorothea Francis. Peggy Fauser, Marion Fletcher, Nancy Grant, Rosa Garlick, Inez Hutchison, Evelyn McCutcheon, Joan Marks, Maidie McGowan, Lucy Newell, Yvonne Pettengell, Guelda Pyke and Ellen Rubbo. opened by Prof. Joseph Burke Burke,[17] Argus Gallery Melbourne [18]
  • 1961, 6 November: Argus Gallery, Melbourne C.A.S. (Vic)[1]
  • 1962, 21 March: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Crouch Prize Exhibition[1]
  • 1962, 13 August: Argus Gallery Melbourne Melbourne Contemporary Artists[1]
  • 1962, 25 February: Argus Gallery Melbourne C.A.S. (Vic) Annual Interstate Exhibition[1]
  • 1963, 12 August: Argus Gallery Melbourne Melbourne Contemporary Artists[1]
  • 1963: Leveson Street Gallery Melbourne[19]
  • 1964, 29 February: Argus Gallery Melbourne C.A.S. (Vic) Annual Interstate Exhibition[1]
  • 1964, 24 August: Argus Gallery Melbourne Melbourne Contemporary Artists[1]
  • 1964, March: Peter Burrows Gallery Melbourne[1]
  • 1964, 12 April: Argus Gallery Melbourne C.A.S. (Vic)[1]
  • 1964, 16 August: Argus Gallery Melbourne, Melbourne Contemporary Artists[1]
  • 1964: Eltham Art Show[20]
  • 1964: Argus Gallery Melbourne C.A.S. (Vic)[1]
  • 1964, 29 April: Beaumaris Art Gallery Inez Hutchison Prize[1]
  • 1964: Geelong Art Gallery Corio Prize[1]
  • 1964, 27 May: Argus Gallery Melbourne C.A.S. (Vic) Annual Interstate Exhibition[1]
  • 1965, 16-27 August: C.A.S. (Vic) final exhibition, The Argus Gallery[21]
  • 1968, 27 May: Argus Gallery Melbourne C.A.S. (Vic) Annual Interstate Exhibition[1]
  • 1968, 21 October: Mildura Art Centre C.A.S. (Vic)[1]
  • 1968, 6 November: Farmers Blaxland Gallery Sydney C.A.S. (NSW) Annual Interstate Exhibition[1]
  • 1968, 17 November: The Australian Environment Toorak Gallery Melbourne C.A.S. (Vic)[1]
  • 1969, 22 June: Toorak Gallery Melbourne C.A.S. (Vic) Annual Interstate Exhibition[1]
  • 1970, Inez Hutchison Award Exhibition, Beaumaris Art Group[22]
  • 1975, May-June: Clive Parry Gallery Beaumaris Opening exhibition[23]
  • 1975, 8 June: Inez Hutchison Prize, Clive Parry Gallery Beaumaris[1]
  • 1975: Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery 19th Invitation Exhibition[24]
  • 1975, February: Mask Show Mildura Art Centre (sculpture)[25]
  • 1975, 14 May: Shire of Flinders Art Award[26]
  • 1975, 15 May: Swan Hill Pioneer Art Award[27]
  • 1975, 6 June: Inez Hutchison Prize, Clive Parry Gallery Beaumaris[1]
  • 1977, 22 February: Mixed Show, Clive Parry Gallery Beaumaris[1]
  • 1977, 19 November: Gold Coast City Art Prize[1]
  • 1978: Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery 21st Invitation[28]
  • 1980: Profile Gallery Print Exhibition[29]
  • 1981: Warrnambool Art Gallery Henri Worland Memorial Print Award[30]
  • 1982, 29 March: Personal Directions, Gryphon Gallery[31][32]
  • 1992, December: Outside/ Inside, Charles Nodrum Richmond[33]

Posthumous

  • 2003, 8 October – 15 November: Margaret Dredge : An Abstract, Deakin University ICON Museum of Art[34][35]
  • 2005, to 30 July: Margaret Dredge: Impulses of the Mind selected works 1985-2001, Span Galleries[2]
  • 2009: Personal Journeys : 40 years of Australian Women’s Abstract Art, Shoalhaven City Arts Centre[1]
  • 2010: Black is the Colour … Shoalhaven City Arts Centre[36]
  • 2012: Less is More: More or Less Shoalhaven City Arts Centre[37]
  • 2013, 2 April – 21 May: Margaret Dredge – Retrospective 1960 to 2001, Shoalhaven City Arts Centre[1][6][4][38]

Awards

  • 1966 Inez Hutchison Prize - Commended[1]
  • 1975 Inez Hutchison Prize - Commended[1]
  • 1975 Shire of Flinders Art Award - Co-winner[3]
  • 1978 Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery[3]

Collections

  • Artbank[39]
  • Ballarat Fine Art Gallery[39]
  • Council of Adult Education[39]
  • Deakin University
  • Geelong Art Gallery[40]
  • Ian Potter Collection, University of Melbourne[41]
  • McClelland Gallery
  • Monash University[3]
  • Shire of Flinders[39]
  • Shoalhaven Regional Gallery – M G Dingle & G B Hughes Collection Bequest[1]
  • Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery[3]
  • Commonwealth Banking Corporation[39]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af Dingle, Max; Dredge, Rhonda; Shoalhaven City Arts Centre (Nowra, N.S.W.) (2012). Margaret Dredge: Retrospective 1960 to 2001. Nowra: Shoalhaven City Arts Centre. ISBN 978-0-646-57900-9. OCLC 802713335.
  2. ^ a b c Beck, Chris (23 July 2005). "Dredge painted the blues". The Age. p. 7.
  3. ^ a b c d e McCulloch, Alan (2006). The new McCulloch's encyclopedia of Australian art. Miegunyah Press. p. 386. ISBN 0-522-85317-X. OCLC 80568976.
  4. ^ a b "Retrospective celebrates abstract artist Margaret Dredge". South Coast Register. Nowra. 28 March 2013.
  5. ^ Bandman, Ken (13 October 1967). "Art-Wise". The Australian Jewish News. p. 16.
  6. ^ a b Peers, Juliette (July 2013). "Not the Usual Book Club Story: The Margaret Dredge Retrospective & the Workings of Australian Art Historiography". Art Monthly Australasia. 261: 18–22.
  7. ^ Dredge, Margaret (22 May 1969). "Letters". The Age. p. 7.
  8. ^ Sturgeon, Graeme (3 April 1979). "Women on show". The Australian.
  9. ^ Scarlett, Kenneth William (1980). Australian sculptors. West Melbourne, Vic: Thomas Nelson (Australia). ISBN 978-0-17-005292-4. OCLC 741951982.
  10. ^ "New Gallery". The Age. 18 November 1964. p. 22.
  11. ^ "Opening at the Argus Gallery yesterday". The Age. 20 July 1965. p. 12.
  12. ^ Alan McCulloch 'Landscape Revolution'. The Herald, 27 September 1967
  13. ^ Patrick McCaughey 'A Painter Apart.' The Age, 27 September 1967
  14. ^ Harry Blake 'Margaret Dredge exhibition an eye-catcher.' The Sun, 5 October 1967
  15. ^ Sweet, Jonathan D (1989). Pinacotheca, 1967-1973. South Yarra, Vic.: Prendergast. ISBN 978-0-9587850-2-0. OCLC 220581595.
  16. ^ Shore, Arnold (5 April 1961). "Art Shows : Painter's Strictly Ordered Forms". The Age. p. 2.
  17. ^ Palmer, Sheridan, "Burke, Sir Joseph Terence (1913–1992)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2022-04-04
  18. ^ "Contemporary Art Exhibition". The Age. 14 Aug 1962. p. 10.
  19. ^ Leveson Street Gallery; Leveson Street Gallery, [Leveson Street Gallery : Australian Gallery File], retrieved 4 April 2022
  20. ^ Eltham Art Show, [Eltham Art Show : Australian Gallery File], retrieved 4 April 2022
  21. ^ Melbourne Contemporary Artists, [Melbourne Contemporary Artists : Australian Gallery File], retrieved 4 April 2022
  22. ^ Beaumaris Art Group, [Beaumaris Art Group : Australian Gallery File], retrieved 4 April 2022
  23. ^ Clive Parry Galleries; Clive Parry Galleries, [Clive Parry Galleries : Australian Gallery File], retrieved 4 April 2022
  24. ^ "Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, 19th Exhibition :: event at :: at Design and Art Australia Online". www.daao.org.au. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  25. ^ "Mask Show :: event at :: at Design and Art Australia Online". www.daao.org.au. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  26. ^ "Shire of Flinders Art Award :: event at :: at Design and Art Australia Online". www.daao.org.au. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  27. ^ "Pioneer Art Award :: event at :: at Design and Art Australia Online". www.daao.org.au. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  28. ^ "Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 21st Exhibition :: event at :: at Design and Art Australia Online". www.daao.org.au. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  29. ^ "Printmaking Exhibition :: event at :: at Design and Art Australia Online". www.daao.org.au. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  30. ^ "Henry Worland Memorial Print Award :: event at :: at Design and Art Australia Online". www.daao.org.au. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  31. ^ Personal directions: prints and photographs. Carlton, Vic.: Gryphon Gallery. 1982. OCLC 271771836.
  32. ^ "Personal Directions :: event at :: at Design and Art Australia Online". www.daao.org.au. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  33. ^ "Outside Inside :: event at :: at Design and Art Australia Online". www.daao.org.au. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  34. ^ Dredge, Margaret; Heathcote, Christopher; Field, Caroline; Icon Museum of Art (2003). Margaret Dredge: an abstract : 8 October - 15 November 2003. Geelong, Vic.: Deakin University. ISBN 978-0-7300-2598-6. OCLC 62536818.
  35. ^ Backhouse, Megan (18 October 2003). "Around The Galleries : Remembering Margaret Dredge". The Age. p. 7.
  36. ^ Dingle, Max G; Hughes, Gavin B; Shoalhaven City Arts Centre (Nowra, N.S.W.) (2010). Black is the colour ... Nowra, N.S.W.: Shoalhaven City Arts Centre. ISBN 978-0-646-52904-2. OCLC 658085697.
  37. ^ Dingle, Max; Shoalhaven City Arts Centre (Nowra, N.S.W.) (2012). Less is More - More or Less: from the M G Dingle & G B Hughes Collection. Nowra, N.S.W.: Shoalhaven City Arts Centre. ISBN 978-0-646-57149-2. OCLC 785984364.
  38. ^ O'Riordan, Maurice. "ACT & Region : Margaret Dredge Retrospective". Art Monthly Australasia. 258: 64.
  39. ^ a b c d e "Margaret Dredge :: biography at :: at Design and Art Australia Online". www.daao.org.au. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  40. ^ Dredge, Margaret (1983). "Untitled 1983, synthetic polymer paint on canvas". Geelong Art Gallery : Explore the Collection. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  41. ^ Dredge, Margaret (1977). "No Estate, synthetic polymer paint on cotton canvas, The University of Melbourne Art Collection. Purchased 1977". Potter Museum of Art : Collections. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
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