Fred Williams Report
...capes demonstrate the influence not only of Matisse, but of English landscape painters, Turner and Whistler. Yet Williams absorbs these influences into a personal vision which is at once indebted to his predecessors and yet bears the strong mark of his own originality Trapeze 1955-1956 The Music Hall theme featured highly in Williams' London drawings and etchings. The artist positioned himself as spectator, not participant, of London society and culture, and the resulting works are often lively and animated studies of performers and their audiences, though with an underlying sense of sadness, as felt both by the artist as an outsider, and the subject as a victim of circumstances. Trapeze 1957-1962 Willam’s Return to Australia It was on his return home that Williams began to establish himself within the Australian modern art movement. He exhibited regularly and built his reputation as an up-and-coming young artist. Though his work at this time remained strongly figurative, he began to experiment with the themes and motifs which were to become later preoccupations and began work on his first Australian landscapes, inspired by the rawness of the Australian bush and its stark contrast to the English countryside. 1963- 1968 The landscape years Williams received critical acclaim in Australia and internationally during this period. He achieved a breakthrough in his search for an aesthetic with which to describe the Australian bush:. The You Yangs themselves are not the focus of Williams' attention in these works, but rather the expansive view of the landscape below attained from the You Yangs as vantage point. ADD QUOTE In the Australian landscape series, Williams' work since the You Yangs is brought to its natural conclusion. These are consummative works, in which Williams refines the themes and concerns of several years work, but they also spell the end of Williams' minimalist approach to landscape painting. The landscape here is reduced to a symbolic code depicted with minute brushstrokes and seen from an immense aerial perspective. Painted on long vertical dividing panels, a sense of the epic yet fundamentally delicate nature of the bush is achieved. 1964 In 1964, Williams travelled to Europe on the Helena Rubinstein Travelling Art Scholarship. His success during this highly creative period enabled him to concentrate on painting full-time, freed from financial pressures. While his major landscape works are bold and innovative and established him as one of Australia's leading artists, Williams also experimented with other subject matter throughout this time. 1968-1979 In the 1970s, Williams began his professional involvement with the Australian National ...