Margaret Dredge facts for kids
Margaret Anne Dredge (27 January 1928 – 3 September 2001) was an Australian painter and printmaker, active from the mid-1950s until 1997, and teacher of art.
Early life
Dredge was born in Murrumbeena in 1928, daughter of a war veteran, the accountant William Arthur Vickery who brought her up after her mother Annie (née Ashby) and her second child died in 1930 during childbirth. 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 Great 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 bank clerk and builder Peter John Dredge, whom she married in 1950 and lived at 34 Codrington Street, Sandringham. Her first 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/printmaker Robert Grieve which encouraged her move to abstraction.
Exhibitions
Solo
- 1964, 14 March: Peter Burrows Gallery, Queens Rd, Melbourne (first solo)
- 1964, 18 November – 9 December: Margaret Dredge : Oils, The Three Sisters Gallery, 46 Church Street, Brighton
- 1965, 19 July: Margaret Dredge paintings, Robert Langley terracotta sculpture, Argus Gallery, Melbourne
- 1965, 31 October – 20 November: Joint exhibition with June Stephenson, The Three Sisters Gallery
- 1967, 24 September – 13 October. Margaret Dredge, Paintings
- 1979, 26 March – 12 April: Margaret Dredge : Paintings 1978-79, Gryphon Gallery, Melbourne State College, 757 Swanston Street, Carlton
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
- 1961, August: Eastside Gallery East Melbourne Beaumaris Art Group
- 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, Argus Gallery Melbourne
- 1961, 6 November: Argus Gallery, Melbourne Contemporary Art Society (Vic)
- 1962, 21 March: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Crouch Prize Exhibition
- 1962, 13 August: Argus Gallery Melbourne Melbourne Contemporary Artists
- 1962, 25 February: Argus Gallery Melbourne Contemporary Art Society (Vic) Annual Interstate Exhibition
- 1963, 12 August: Melbourne Contemporary Artists 1963 Exhibition, with women artists including Anne Montgomery, Evelyn McCutcheon, Mary McQueen, Edith Wall, Barbara Brash, Margaret Dredge, Marion Fletcher, Marjorie Woolcock, Constance Stokes and Guelda Pyke. Argus Gallery Melbourne
- 1963: Leveson Street Gallery Melbourne
- 1964, 29 February: Argus Gallery Melbourne Contemporary Art Society (Vic) Annual Interstate Exhibition
- 1964, 24 August: Argus Gallery Melbourne Melbourne Contemporary Artists
- 1964, March: Peter Burrows Gallery Melbourne
- 1964, 12 April: Argus Gallery Melbourne Contemporary Art Society (Vic)
- 1964, 16 August: Argus Gallery Melbourne, Melbourne Contemporary Artists
- 1964: Eltham Art Show
- 1964: Argus Gallery Melbourne Contemporary Art Society (Vic)
- 1964, 29 April: Beaumaris Art Gallery Inez Hutchison Prize
- 1964: Geelong Art Gallery Corio Prize
- 1964, 27 May: Argus Gallery Melbourne Contemporary Art Society (Vic) Annual Interstate Exhibition
- 1965, February: Small show of paintings by Robert Traver, June Stephenson, and Margaret Dredge. Peter Burrowes and Associates studio.
- 1965, April: Annual Inter-State Exhibition of the Contemporary Art Society, with Erica McGilchrist, Doreen Folkerts, Brian Kewley, Joan O'Loughlin, Ellen Rubbo, June Stephenson, Rosa Garlick, Gareth Sansom, Ronald Kirk, Pat Shannon and others
- 1965, 16–27 August: Contemporary Art Society (Vic), The Argus Gallery
- 1965, November: Eltham Art Prize, with Gareth Jones Roberts, Peter Miller, Robert Grieve, Lindsay Edward, Arch Cuthberton, Sam Fullbrook, Neil Douglas and Brian Kewley. Eltham Shire Hall
- 1966, March: Contemporary Art Society (Vic), The Argus Gallery
- 1968, 27 May: Argus Gallery Melbourne Contemporary Art Society (Vic) Annual Interstate Exhibition
- 1968, 21 October: Mildura Art Centre Contemporary Art Society (Vic)
- 1968, 6 November: Farmers Blaxland Gallery Sydney Contemporary Art Society (NSW) Annual Interstate Exhibition
- 1968, 17 November: The Australian Environment Toorak Gallery Melbourne Contemporary Art Society (Vic)
- 1969, 22 June: Toorak Gallery Melbourne Contemporary Art Society (Vic) Annual Interstate Exhibition
- 1970, Inez Hutchison Award Exhibition, Beaumaris Art Group
- 1975, May–June: Clive Parry Gallery Beaumaris Opening exhibition
- 1975, 8 June: Inez Hutchison Prize, Clive Parry Gallery Beaumaris
- 1975: Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery 19th Invitation Exhibition
- 1975, February: Mask Show Mildura Art Centre (sculpture)
- 1975, 14 May: Shire of Flinders Art Award
- 1975, 15 May: Swan Hill Pioneer Art Award
- 1975, 6 June: Inez Hutchison Prize, Clive Parry Gallery Beaumaris
- 1977, 22 February: Mixed Show, Clive Parry Gallery Beaumaris
- 1977, 19 November: Gold Coast City Art Prize
- 1978: Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery 21st Invitation
- 1980: Profile Gallery Print Exhibition
- 1981: Warrnambool Art Gallery Henri Worland Memorial Print Award
- 1982, 29 March: Personal Directions, prints, with Christine Chappell and Geoffrey Goldie, Gryphon Gallery
- 1992, December: Outside/ Inside, Charles Nodrum Richmond
Posthumous
- 2003, 8 October – 15 November: Margaret Dredge : An Abstract, Deakin University ICON Museum of Art
- 2005, to 30 July: Margaret Dredge: Impulses of the Mind selected works 1985-2001, Span Galleries
- 2009: Personal Journeys : 40 years of Australian Women’s Abstract Art, Shoalhaven City Arts Centre
- 2010: Black is the Colour … Shoalhaven City Arts Centre
- 2012: Less is More: More or Less Shoalhaven City Arts Centre
- 2013, 2 April – 21 May: Margaret Dredge – Retrospective 1960 to 2001, Shoalhaven City Arts Centre
Awards
- 1966 Inez Hutchison Prize - Commended
- 1975 Inez Hutchison Prize - Commended
- 1975 Shire of Flinders Art Award - Co-winner
- 1978 Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery
Collections
- Artbank
- Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
- Council of Adult Education
- Deakin University
- Geelong Art Gallery
- Ian Potter Collection, University of Melbourne
- McClelland Gallery
- Monash University
- Shire of Flinders
- Shoalhaven Regional Gallery – M G Dingle & G B Hughes Collection Bequest
- Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery
- Commonwealth Banking Corporation
