When Margaret Worth first enrolled as a student teacher at the University of Adelaide she assumed she would become a science teacher. However she soon transferred her enrollment to art. At the South Australian School of art she came under the influence of the very forthright Dora Chapman, the designer Geoff Wilson and the painter Sid Ball, who was to become her husband.
After graduating in 1967 she both taught and established a studio practice, painting pure hard edge abstract works. When John Stringer, the exhibitions officer from the National Gallery of Victoria, visited their home when he was scouting for artists to show in The Field, he was only interested in looking at her husband’s work.
In 1969 she and Ball left for the USA. They settled in New York where she completed an Advanced Studies certificate at the School of Visual Arts before completing an MA in Fine Arts at Columbia. Here she came under the influence of Lucy Lippard, Richard Serra and Donald Judd. Later she worked for Sol Le Witt.
In the 14 years she lived in the USA, Worth taught at Sarah Lawrence College and Parsons School of Art & Design and worked as a freelance illustrator for MacMillan publishers.
On her return to Australia she established Worth Consulting (art and design, people and planning), moving art to public places.
In 2020 she was one of the artists featured in the National Gallery of Australia’s Know My Name initiative
- Writers:
-
Joanna Mendelssohn
- Date written:
- 2020
- Last updated:
- 2020
