Fred Williams - The Australian Landscape Series 1965-69

cover FRED WILLIAMS The Australian Landscape 1965 - 69

FRED WILLIAMS The Australian Landscape 1965 - 69 From the Estate of the Artist Opening Wednesday 5 October 6-8pm Exhibition 5 - 30 October 2016 Olsen Irwin thanks Mrs Williams and the Estate of Fred Williams

Australian art in the Sixties was exposed as never before to ideas from overseas particularly from America, abstraction, colour field painting and minimalism were hard to resist.

Williams’ reaction was to refine his rather specific landscapes, Sherbrooke Forrest, You Yangs and Lysterfield into a more generic Australian Landscape and in 1969 these gentle, lyrical works appeared.

To many people these extraordinary, courageous and thoughtful works remain to this day the essence of the Australian landscape.

R.I., September 2016

Front Cover: You Yangs II, Jan 1965 gouache on paper 46.5 x 75cm Back Cover: You Yangs Saplings, Jan 1965 gouache on paper 77 x 55.5cm

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Australian Landscape, Jan 1969 gouache on paper 56.6 x 61.5cm

Australian Landscape, Jan 1969 Recto (left) gouache on paper 56.5 x 52.5cm Verso (right) gouache on paper 22 x 31.5cm

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Australian Landscape, Jan 1969 gouache on paper 56.5 x 76.2cm

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You Yangs II, Feb 1969 gouache on paper 52.5 x 76.8cm

“With this extensive group of gouaches and paintings Williams’s art reached a watershed. They take to an extreme point his transformation of the landscape into a symbolic code”1

Australian Landscape, Aug 1969 gouache on paper 58 x 59.5cm

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You Yangs I, Feb 1965 gouache on paper 59.5 x 80cm

Upwey, May 1966 - Aug 1969 gouache on paper 56.3 x 76.2cm

Australian Landscape, 1969 oil on canvas 91.5 x 86.4cm

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Australian Landscape (Hillside), Aug 1969 gouache on paper 57 x 76.5cm

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Lysterfield Pink and Silver, May 1966 gouache on paper 49 x 76cm

Landscape ’69 (Howqua River series), 1969 oil on canvas 88.8 x 107.2cm

Page 13 William’s described in his diary ‘a curious old brick chimney left standing on the opposite bank… it looks very strange amongst the trees’ and coupled it with Old Chimney, Howqua River, April 1969 gouache on paper 58 x 77cm

‘a rapidly flowing river churning its noisy way through a landscape’.

Without realising its future implications, Williams found at Howqua a compositional device he would later use many times- the strip landscape.2

The Howqua River I, April 1969 gouache on paper 50 x 76.5cm

The Howqua River II, April 1969 gouache on paper 52 x 76.5cm

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The Howqua, Evening, April 1969 gouache on paper 50 x 75cm

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Lysterfield Landscape, Aug 1969 gouache on paper 57 x 65.5cm

Wattles, Yarra Glen I, Aug 1969 gouache on paper 45.6 x 76.6cm

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Wattles, Yarra Glen II, Aug 1969 gouache on paper 57 x 76cm

Cover: You Yangs II, Jan 1965 gouache on paper 46.5 x 75cm (GW 633) signed lower right Exhibited: Museum of Modern Art, New York 1977 (cat. 2) $80,000

5. You Yangs II, Feb 1969 gouache on paper 52.5 x 76.8cm (GW 595) signed lower right Selected: Museum of Modern Art, New York 1977 $65,000

Back cover: You Yangs Saplings, Jan 1965 gouache on paper 77 x 55.5cm (GW 631) signed lower right $80,000

6. Australian Landscape, Aug 1969 gouache on paper 58 x 59.5cm (GW 594) signed lower left $60,000

1. Australian Landscape, Jan 1969 gouache on paper 56.6 x 61.5cm (GW 585) signed lower right $60,000 2. & 3. Australian Landscape, Jan 1969 recto: gouache on paper 56.5 x 52.5cm (GW 608) signed lower right verso: gouache on paper 22 x 31.5cm (GW 608) $60,000 4. Australian Landscape, Jan 1969 gouache on paper 56.5 x 76.2cm (GW 603) signed lower right Exhibited: Museum of Modern Art, New York 1977 (cat. 20) $80,000

7. You Yangs I, Feb 1965 gouache on paper 59.5 x 80cm (GW 616) signed lower right Exhibited: Fred Williams- A Working Method, National Gallery of Victoria Dec 1995 – Feb 1996. $65,000 8. Upwey, May 1966 - Aug 1969 gouache on paper 56.3 x 76.2cm (GW 622) signed lower right Selected: Museum of Modern Art, New York 1977 $80,000 9. Australian Landscape, 1969 oil on canvas 91.5 x 86.4cm (LW 641) unsigned $150,000

10. Australian Landscape (Hillside), Aug 1969 gouache on paper 57 x 76.5cm (GW 593) signed lower left Selected: Museum of Modern Art, New York 1977 $65,000 11. Lysterfield Pink and Silver, May 1966 gouache on paper 49 x 76cm (GW 625) signed lower right Reproduced: McCaughey, Patrick ‘Fred Williams: 1927- 1982’ p. 194 plate: 100 $80,000 12. Landscape ’69 (Howqua River series), 1969 oil on canvas 88.8 x 107.2cm (LW 278) signed lower left $275,000 13. Old Chimney, Howqua River, April 1969 gouache on paper 58 x 77cm (GW 095) signed lower left $60,000 14. The Howqua River I, April 1969 gouache on paper 50 x 76.5cm (GW 093) signed top left $40,000

15. The Howqua River II, April 1969 gouache on paper 52 x 76.5cm (GW 096) signed lower right $40,000 16. The Howqua, Evening, April 1969 gouache on paper 50 x 75cm (GW 091) signed top left $40,000 17. Lysterfield Landscape, Aug 1969 gouache on paper 57 x 65.5cm (GW 598) signed lower right $60,000 18. Wattles, Yarra Glen I, Aug 1969 gouache on paper 45.6 x 76.6cm (GW 613) signed lower right $40,000 19. Wattles, Yarra Glen II, Aug 1969 gouache on paper 57 x 76cm (GW 611) signed top left $60,000

GW and LW numbers refer to Fred Williams Estate numbers.

Footnotes: 1. McCaughey, Patrick “Fred Williams 1927 - 1982” Murdoch books, First published 1980 page 216 2. Mollison, James “A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams” Oxford University Press, First published 1989 page 139

BIOGRAPHY 1927 1943 - 47 1946 - 50 1951 - 56

1957 1961 1963 1964 1969 1972 - 74 1973 - 76 1975 - 82 1976 1980

1982

Born, Melbourne Attended National Gallery School Attended George Bell Art School, Melbourne Travelled to London, worked as framer and attended part-time Chelsea School of Art & Central Art School Returned to Australia Married Lyn Watson Moved to Upwey Travelled to Europe on Helena Rubenstein Scholarship Moved to Hawthorn Member, Commonwealth Art Advisory Board Member, Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council Trustee, Council of the National Gallery of Australia Awarded OBE Awarded Doctorate of Law, LL.D (Honoris Causa)

by Monash University Died, Melbourne

SELECTED SOLO MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 - 75

1977

1978 1976 - 78 1980

1981 1981 - 82

Heroic Landscape: Streeton to Williams, NGV Fred Williams Watercolours, QAG & Newcastle Art Gallery Fred Williams Retrospective, Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre Adelaide Festival Theatre Murals, Festival Theatre, Adelaide Ten Australians, Australia Council touring show, France, Italy, W.Germany, Great Britain, and AGNSW Paintings 1963-77, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane Fred Williams - Landscapes of a Continent, MoMA, New York; toured Florida, Nebraska, Texas Fred Williams, Paintings, Gouaches & Lithographs Touring exhibition, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney Fred Williams: 1969 - 79 Australian Embassy, Paris Fischer Fine Art, London Fred Williams, Works in the National Gallery of Victoria, NGV Fred Williams: Painter/Etcher, NGA Fred Williams: Bass Strait Landscapes 1971-78, toured Tasmanian and Victorian galleries

1983 - 84

1987 - 89

1988

1994

1995 1996

1999

2000

2000

2001

2001 2001

2003 2011

Fred Williams: The Pilbara Series, CRA touring show, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo Fred Williams: A Retrospective, National Gallery of Australia & tour of all State Galleries Fred Williams: The Pilbara Series, CRA touring show, London, Ulster, Belfast, Kilkenny Fred Williams: Etchings 1970-76 & The Guthega Paintings, Ian Potter Gallery, University of Melbourne Fred Williams: A Working Method, NGV Fred Williams: The Queensland Gouaches, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, and tour of 5 regional galleries, Queensland Fred Williams: Drawing the Exotic, Museum of Modern Art at Heide Fred Williams Pilbara Series, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne The Enduring Landscape: Gouaches by Fred Williams (from the collection of the NGV), Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne From Music Hall to Landscape, Fred Williams Drawings and Prints, AGNSW Fred Williams landscapes 1959 - 1981, Monash University Fred Williams drawing the nude, Museum of Modern Art at Heide Fred Williams: An Australian Vision, The British Museum, London Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Including those listed above, there have been over 70 solo exhibitions since 1957.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Fred Williams’ work is represented in all Australian state gallery collections, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and regional galleries Australia wide.

He is also represented in institutional, corporate and private collections in Australia and overseas. The Tate, London, The British Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, New York all have Fred Williams’ work in their collections.

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