Margaret Preston at NGV: Melbourne’s First Major Retrospective in Twenty Years
The first full retrospective of Margaret Preston’s work in more than two decades opens at NGV Australia this September, bringing together over 200 paintings, prints and sculptures from her seven-decade career.
If you’ve ever admired a bold, boldly Australian still life of flannel flowers or gum blossom and wondered who painted it, chances are it was Margaret Preston. From 4 September, NGV Australia is giving her the retrospective she’s overdue, and it’s shaping up to be one of the standout exhibitions on Melbourne’s cultural calendar this spring and summer.
Related reading: How to Make the Most of Your Visit to The Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia
About the exhibition
Margaret Preston runs at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia in Federation Square from 4 September 2026 to 31 January 2027. It’s the first exhibition dedicated to Preston in more than twenty years, and it traces her career from her early 1900s still lifes through to the landscapes and prints she made later in life. Preston was a central figure in the development of modernism in Australia, and this show sets out to prove exactly why.
The show brings together loans from the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Art Gallery of South Australia, alongside works from NGV’s own collection, including two of her best-known paintings, Flannel flowers (1938) and Shoalhaven Gorge, New South Wales (1940–41).
What to look out for
Preston’s still lifes are the heart of the show. Early works such as Still life with teapot (1915) and The teapot cosy (1916) reveal a brighter palette and looser brushwork picked up from her time in Europe, where she encountered the Post-Impressionists. Look, too, for her woodblock prints from the mid-1920s — more than thirty of them are on display, many hand-coloured, depicting native flowers, birds and views across Sydney Harbour.
There’s also a strong body of work from her Berowra years in the 1930s, when she turned her attention to Australian bush flora, and landscapes from the 1940s that came out of her travels to rock art sites across Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory and New South Wales.
Alongside Preston’s own work, the exhibition includes nineteen pieces by contemporary First Nations artists responding to her legacy and her use of Indigenous imagery, among them world-premiere commissions by Marilyn Russell and Jimmy Frank Jupurrurla, and work by Tony Albert, Gordon Bennett and Trevor Nickolls. It’s a thoughtful way of putting her work in conversation with today’s artists rather than presenting it in isolation, and it gives the exhibition real depth for anyone interested in how Australian art has grappled with questions of identity and cultural borrowing.
A companion book, edited by curators Beckett Rozentals and Michael Gentle, accompanies the exhibition for anyone who wants to take the research home with them.
Planning your visit
Tickets: This is a ticketed exhibition, separate from NGV’s free permanent collection — admission fees apply, and I’d recommend booking your entry time online in advance through the NGV website, particularly for weekends. Book tickets here.
Quieter times: Weekday mornings tend to be the calmest time to visit any NGV exhibition, with weekends and school holidays busier.
Accessibility: The Ian Potter Centre has street-level entrances with automatic doors, and lift access to every floor (there’s no down escalator, so factor that in if you’re navigating with a pram or trolley as well). Wheelchairs are available for free hire from the Information Desk — it’s worth booking ahead by calling 03 8620 2222. A hearing loop is available in the Theatre. Accessible toilets are on-site.
Getting there
- By tram: Trams along Flinders Street (routes 70, 75 and the City Circle) and along Swanston Street/St Kilda Road (routes 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 16, 64, 67 and 72) all stop near Federation Square — alight at Flinders Street and walk in.
- By train: Flinders Street Station is right next door.
- By car: Parking is available at the Federation Square Car Park (enter from the corner of Flinders and Russell Streets) or the Arts Centre car park beneath NGV International on Sturt Street, Southbank.
Angie’s review coming soon
Angie is heading along to see Margaret Preston for herself, and her full review will be landing on Seniors in Melbourne shortly — keep an eye out for her take on the exhibition, including which works stopped her in her tracks.
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