Australian Galleries Melbourne presents an exhibition that explores the relationship between renowned Australian landscape artist Fred Williams’ paintings and prints.
No Australian landscape artist has had the same profound cultural impact as Fred Williams, a painter and printmaker whose distinctive representations of the Australian landscape altered the way our continent came to be envisioned.
Within Etchings with Related Paintings 1954 – 1968, Australian Galleries Melbourne presents an inter-dependant exhibition of his prints and paintings, inviting the audience to observe the interwoven nature of his craft.
What you need to know
- Australian Galleries Melbourne is putting on an exhibition of renowned landscape artist Fred Williams’ work
- The exhibit aims to explore the relationship between the artist’s printmaking and painting processes
- It will run from May 10 until May 28 in Collingwood
Keep up to date with Melbourne’s latest art events, exhibitions and performances here.
“The etchings certainly make clear what it is in Williams’ landscape vision that moves us,” describes art critic Christopher Heathcote on Fred Williams’ work in this exhibit. “The spatial qualities of his canvases with their built-up paint surfaces may be absent, the prints have in comparison a quite flat verticality, although what comes to fore is the utter stillness of these views – from Fallen Tree with its skinny trunk glimpsed in mid-air, to the planar views of Upwey, Lysterfield and the You Yangs, he shows landscapes where change seems suspended, and time stands still.”
Fred Williams studied at the National Gallery Art School in Sydney and the George Bell Art School in the 1940s and developed an appreciation for Modernism and the work of Paul Cézanne. Profoundly inspired by the light, scale and beauty of the landscape of Australia upon his return from travels in England in 1957, his paintings have continued to have lasting cultural impact. Reducing forms to abstract motifs, particularly in his depictions of the You Yangs landscapes, Williams’ work epitomises the notion of unstructured and untamed organic space.
“There is much to savour in these inter-dependent prints and paintings, much to contemplate and enjoy,” continues Heathcote. “They offer a very rare chance to see a master artist grappling with potent creative ideas.”
Etchings with Related Paintings 1954 – 1968 is running at Australian Galleries Melbourne from May 10 until May 28 2022.
For more information, click here.
