Williams, Fred (1927-1982), was one of the most original landscape painters in the history of Australian art. The trademark of a Williams landscape was its feeling of space and the whirling brushstrokes and unpredictable colors that he used to convey Australian scenes. Williams’s large-scale paintings evoke a sense of mystery and remoteness. Human figures rarely appear in his landscapes. Williams won the Wynne Prize for landscape painting at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1966 and 1976.
Williams first revealed his talent for painting Australian landscape when he exhibited in Melbourne in 1959. His use of color, composition, texture, light, and placement of accents all revealed a new and imaginative vision at a time when critics believed that landscape painting in Australia badly needed a fresh approach. Williams did many drawings of nudes, landscapes, seascapes, street scenes, and studies of animals and also produced numerous prints.
Frederick Ronald Williams was born on Jan. 23, 1927, in Melbourne. He studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School before going to London to study from 1952 to 1957. He returned to Australia in 1957. From about 1957 to 1962, Williams concentrated on landscape scenes of the Australian bush and the forests of the coastal plains and hills. He established his reputation with the You Yang series (1963-1964), which were scenes of rocky hills near Melbourne. Later in his career, Williams painted sea scenes along with landscapes that were more dramatic than his earlier bleak scenes of the bush. Williams died on April 22, 1982.
