Margaret Plant

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Margaret Plant FAHA is a Professor of Australian art history, and as of November 2022 Emeritus Professor of Visual Arts at Monash University.

Career[edit]

Born in South Australia in 1940, Plant grew up in Williamstown and as a schoolgirl saw paintings by John Perceval of fishing boats the suburb's harbour,[1] and later wrote the first monograph on the artist.[2]

Plant began tutoring in the University of Melbourne Department of Fine Arts in 1962 until 1965 and completed a Master of Arts in 1969 there with her thesis The realm of the curtain : Paul Klee and theatre.[3] Meanwhile, with Ursula Hoff she wrote The National Gallery of Victoria; Painting, Drawing, Sculpture published in 1968,[4] and that year was appointed Lecturer at RMIT University. Hers was the first academic appointment of an art historian within an Australian art school; she was made Senior Lecturer there, a position she held until 1975.

Plant returned to the University of Melbourne as senior lecturer in fine arts 1975–82 and resided in Malvern. She completed her doctoral dissertation Fresco painting in Avignon and northern Italy : a study of some fourteenth century cycles of saints' lives outside Tuscany in 1987.

From 1982–96, long association with Monash University as Professor of Visual Arts followed, and she has continued there as Emeritus Professor.[5] Frequently a presenter at events and exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria,[6] she has been outspoken about the invisibility or, or erasure of,women in Australian art and social histories and their representation in collections.[7] From 1984-87 Plant was appointed to the Council of the Australian National Gallery,[8] where on her retirement it was noted that her "contribution as one of Australia's leading academics in the field of visual arts, together with her particular knowledge of Australian art, was invaluable."[9] In the 1990s she was an invited member of a committee,[10] headed by the chief commissioner of Port Phillip Des Clark, established to build a museum of contemporary art in Melbourne,[11] recently realised in design and construction of NGV Contemporary.[12]

Plant's research and writing is wide-ranging, in catalogue essays, academic papers, book reviews, journal articles and monographs, from Turner[13] and Paul Klee[14] to settlers' domestication of the Australian bush,[15] 7128717926 and including a children's introduction to Australian art.[16][17][18] Paul Giles in the Australian Book Review hailed Plant's 2017 book Love and Lament: An essay on the arts in Australia in the twentieth century,[19] as "multivalent, wide-angled" and "ranging widely across architecture, film, photography, music, dance, and popular culture, as well as literature and painting [demonstrating] convincingly that, as she puts it, there was 'no dormant period' in Australian cultural and artistic life during this time."[20]

Honours[edit]

Plant was elected to the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1985.[21]

Monash University instituted the 'Margaret Plant Annual Lecture in Art History' in 2018, at which presenters have been James Meyer, curator, National Gallery of Art, Washington, in 2018; Christina Barton, director of the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, at the Victoria University of Wellington, in 2019; Ming Tiampo, Professor of Art History, Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, in 2021; and in 2022, Erika Wolf, research fellow at the Neboltai Collection of 20th Century Propaganda.[22]

Publications[edit]

Books[edit]

  • Plant, Margaret (1968). National Gallery of Victoria: a painting, drawing, sculpture. F. W. Cheshire. OCLC 1239774759.
  • Plant, Margaret (1969). The Realm of the Curtain: Paul Klee and Theatre (Master of Arts Thesis ed.). Melbourne: University of Melbourne. OCLC 222922330.
  • King, Inge; Plant, Margaret (1969). Inge King. Melbourne: Aldine Press. OCLC 221297907.
  • Plant, Margaret (1971). John Perceval. Melbourne: Lansdowne Press. ISBN 9780701803506.[23]
  • Plant, Margaret; Australian Council for the Arts; Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1973). Austrália Bienal de São Paulo 1973: Jan Senbergs and John Armstrong ; catalogue of an exhibition ; introduced by Margaret Plant. OCLC 220010032.
  • Plant, Margaret (1973). Melbourne Printmakers. National Gallery of Victoria. OCLC 954567943.
  • Plant, Margaret; Art Gallery of South Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales; National Gallery of Victoria (1974). Paul Klee: Australia 1974. 1974. Visual Arts Board. OCLC 935584656.
  • Plant, Margaret; National Gallery of Victoria (1977). French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists: National Gallery of Victoria. Rev. ed. Gallery 19771976 (Revised ed.). Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria. ISBN 9780724100514. OCLC 4055743.
  • Klee, Paul; Plant, Margaret (1978). Paul Klee: Figures and Faces. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 9780500232743. OCLC 450969968.[24]
  • Galbally, Ann; Plant, Margaret; University of Melbourne (1978). Studies in Australian Art. Melbourne: Dept. of Fine Arts, University of Melbourne. ISBN 9780909454937. OCLC 6943784.
  • Plant, Margaret; Brack, John (1982). John Brack Nudes: Fifteen Original Lithographs (Limited ed.). Lyre Bird Press. ISBN 9780949840028. OCLC 27621379.
  • Plant, Margaret; Monash University. Department of Visual Arts (1983). Renaissance gardens - Italy. Clayton, Vic: Dept. of Visual Arts, Monash University.
  • Plant, Margaret; Monash University (1985). Irreverent sculpture: 1-30 August 1985. Clayton, Victoria: Monash University Gallery. ISBN 9780867463828. OCLC 27574327.
  • Plant, Margaret (1995). Painting Australia: A Child's Guide to Australian Paintings. Roseville East, N.S.W: Craftsman House in Association with G B Arts International. ISBN 9789766410025. OCLC 38378703.
  • Plant, Margaret (2017). Love and Lament: An Essay on the Arts in Australia in the Twentieth Century. Port Melbourne, Victoria: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500500644. OCLC 1007041739.
  • Plant, Margaret (2002). Venice fragile city, 1797-1977. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300083866.

Articles[edit]

  • Plant, Margaret (Spring 1974). "Paul Klee Exhibition: Adelaide Sydney Melbourne 1974". Art and Australia. 12 (2): 37.
  • Plant, Margaret (1997). "Compost, a desultory aesthetic. [A version of this essay was given during Artists' Week, Adelaide Arts Festival, Norwood RSL Hall, March 1996.]". Art and Australia. 34 (3): 356. OCLC 7128717926.
  • Plant, Margaret (1982). Dean, Sonia (ed.). "The Encounter of Baldessin and Tillers on an Etching Plate: 'According to Des Esseintes' 1976". Art Bulletin of Victoria (22). Melbourne: Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria, with the generous assistance of The Art Foundation of Victoria and the National Gallery Society of Victoria: 12–24. ISBN 0-7241-0083-0. ISSN 0066-7935.
  • Plant, Margaret (12 May 1982). Hill, Beryl (ed.). "Tribute to Fred Williams: National Gallery of Victoria". Art Bulletin of Victoria (23). Melbourne: Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria with the generous assistance of The Art Foundation of Victoria and the National Gallery Society of Victoria. ISSN 0066-7935.
  • Plant, Margaret (1988). Dean, Sonia; Hill, Beryl (eds.). "The lost art of Federation: Australia's quest for modernism". Art Bulletin of Victoria (28). Melbourne: Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria, with the assistance of The Art Foundation of Victoria and the National Gallery Society of Victoria. ISSN 0066-7935.
  • Plant, Margaret (1986). "Paul Klee's Perspectives". Australian Journal of Art. 5 (1): 104–112. doi:10.1080/03146464.1986.11432883.
  • Plant, Margaret (1990). "'Bereft of all but her loveliness': change and conservation in nineteenth century Venice". Transition: Discourse on Architecture. 3: 7–37. OCLC 7128670158.Plant, Margaret (1991). "Endisms and Apocalypses in the 1980s". Art and Text (39): 29–36. OCLC 7128663401.
  • Plant, Margaret (1991). "'No one enters Venice as a stranger': a history and theory of ( Venetian) guidebooks". Transition: Discourse on Architecture (34): 56–80.
  • Plant, Margaret (Summer 1992). "Ten Years of the Australian National Gallery". Art and Australia. 30 (2). Sydney, Australia: Janet Gough + Fine Arts Press Pty Ltd: 197–208.Plant, Margaret (2001). "John Perceval 1923-2000". Art and Australia 2001. 38 (3): 389–390.
  • Plant, Margaret (2003). "The Journey from Field to Fieldwork 1968 - 2003". Eyeline. 51 (3): 44–46. ISSN 0818-8734. OCLC 7855059767.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Plant, Margaret (2001). "John Perceval 1923-2000". Art and Australia 2001. 38 (3): 389–390.
  2. ^ Roberts, Jo (18 October 2000). "John Perceval 1923-2000: Landscapes of innocence and angels of clay". The Age. p. 25.
  3. ^ Plant, Margaret (1969). The Realm of the Curtain: Paul Klee and Theatre (Master of Arts Thesis ed.). Melbourne: University of Melbourne. OCLC 222922330.
  4. ^ Plant, Margaret (1968). National Gallery of Victoria: a painting, drawing, sculpture. F. W. Cheshire. OCLC 1239774759.
  5. ^ McCulloch, Alan; McCulloch, Susan; McCulloch Childs, Emily (2006). The new McCulloch's encyclopedia of Australian art. Fitzroy BC, Vic.: AUS Art Editions. p. 925. OCLC 608565596.
  6. ^ "Advertisement: February at the National Gallery of Victoria". The Age. 3 February 1990. p. 210.
  7. ^ Plant, Margaret (30 May 1992). "Letters: Only ONE woman in that century". The Age. p. 10.
  8. ^ "In Brief: National Gallery". The Canberra Times. 11 July 1984. p. 3.
  9. ^ Australian National Gallery Annual report 1987–1988 (Report). Canberra: Australian National Gallery. 1988. p. 12. ISSN 0314-9919. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  10. ^ Le Couteur, Guy (29 November 1995). "Traditional arguments - contemporary theme". The Age. p. 18.
  11. ^ Gill, Raymond (4 May 1994). "Museum proposal goes for the cutting edge". The Age. p. 22.
  12. ^ "The Fox: NGV Contemporary | NGV". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
  13. ^ James, Bruce (16 March 1996). "The artist at one with nature". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 144.
  14. ^ Plant, Margaret (1986). "Paul Klee's Perspectives". Australian Journal of Art. 5 (1): 104–112. doi:10.1080/03146464.1986.11432883.
  15. ^ "Arts diary: Gardening matters". The Age. 18 October 1993. p. 15.
  16. ^ Plant, Margaret (1995). Painting Australia: A Child's Guide to Australian Paintings. Roseville East, N.S.W: Craftsman House in Association with G B Arts International. ISBN 9789766410025. OCLC 38378703.
  17. ^ Engberg, Juliana (18 December 1995). "Visual Arts: Guide and journey for children". The Age. p. 15.
  18. ^ Allen, Traudi (25 February 1996). "Every picture tells a sort of story". The Age. p. 40.
  19. ^ Plant, Margaret (2017). Love and Lament: An Essay on the Arts in Australia in the Twentieth Century. Port Melbourne, Victoria: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500500644. OCLC 1007041739.
  20. ^ Giles, Paul (July 2018). "Love and Lament: An essay on the arts in Australia in the twentieth century by Margaret Plant". Australian Book Review (402). Southbank, Victoria: National Book Council (Australia) and Australian Book Review Inc. ISSN 0155-2864.
  21. ^ Melbourne, The University of. "Fellows in the Australian Learned Academies, 1954-2010 - Theme - The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia". www.womenaustralia.info. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
  22. ^ "Neboltai | Home". www.neboltai.org. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
  23. ^ Parker, Nancy (20 November 1971). "A pictorial vigour". The Canberra Times. p. 15.
  24. ^ Boretz., Naomi (Autumn 1979). "Book Review: Paul Klee: Figures and Faces". Leonardo. 12 (4). MIT Press: 339–340. doi:10.2307/1573918. JSTOR 1573918.
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