Progressive Art Movement

also: PAM

movement 1970s South Australia Australia

The Progressive Art Movement (PAM) was founded in Adelaide in 1974 by feminist artist Ann Newmarch and Flinders University philosopher Brian Medlin, growing out of their Politics and Art course and inspired by Marxist-Leninist theory. Part of a broader push against elitism in the art world, PAM defined itself as a political organisation: it mounted protests at institutions such as the Art Gallery of South Australia and produced art in cheap, mass-reproducible materials - silkscreen prints and posters - so that both making and owning art stayed accessible. Its membership mixed artists with students, writers, filmmakers, and poets, and it worked through campaigns, notably against foreign military bases. Internal strains over tactics and politics, including the divisive Free Will Hight campaign, saw members drift away by the late 1970s. A strong feminist strand was highlighted in the 2024 Flinders University Museum of Art exhibition If You Don't Fight ... You Lose.

The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)
The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)Public domain (credit: Johann Zoffany) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Screenprinted posters in cheap, mass-reproducible formats for street and noticeboard display
  • Bold agitational graphics keyed to specific political campaigns and protests
  • Accessibility prized over finish: utilitarian materials, modest scale, low cost
  • Subject matter drawn from contemporary politics - workers, industry, anti-war and anti-bases campaigns
  • Collective, program-driven production rather than individual artistic expression
  • Feminist content running through members' prints and posters (Newmarch, Martin, Dodd)

Key figures

  • Ann Newmarch (1945-2022) — Co-founder; South Australian painter and printmaker whose 1978 screenprint Women Hold Up Half the Sky! became iconic
  • Brian Medlin (fl. 1974) — Co-founder; foundation professor of philosophy at Flinders University whose Politics and Art course seeded PAM
  • Mandy Martin (1952-2021) — Painter-printmaker and student member, later documenting PAM's political posters
  • Pamela Harris (1946-1992) — Adelaide painter and printmaker associated with the group

Example works

Sources

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