Margel Hinder

Margel Ina Harris Hinder AM (4 January 1906 in Brooklyn, New York – 29 May 1995 in Roseville, New South Wales) was an Australian-American modernist sculptor, noted for her kinetic and public sculptural works.

Her sculptures are found outside the Australian Reserve Bank building in Martin Place, Sydney,[1] in a memorial in Newcastle, New South Wales,[2] and in Canberra, ACT.

Her parents were Wilson Park Harris and Helen Haist and her father worked in a steel foundry and later as a photographer in New York.

It was Lange who organised Exhibition 1 in Sydney 1939, showcasing a ground-breaking group of artists, including Hinder, who shared an interest in semi-abstract painting and sculpture.

[11] The following year Hinder was back at the David Jones Gallery exhibiting glass and plastic carved shapes which emphasised theories of time and space'.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald she talked about juggling her family life, teaching at a technical college and giving lectures at an Art Gallery of NSW.

[14] At the same time Hinder was the subject of a feature article in the Australian Women's Day and she was exploring rounded wire shapes that would be incorporated in her work in future decades.

[16] Hinder's work outside the Reserve Bank of Australia in Martin Place was commissioned after she won an international competition for sculptors in 1961.

[17] The abstract work created from cast copper with a steel core drew mixed responses to the form that people found difficult to identify.

Hinder's acknowledged master work is the water sculpture known as the Captain James Cook Memorial Fountain located in Newcastle, New South Wales's Civic Park.