Fred Williams (1927-1982)Burnt Ti Trees, Flinders Island, 1974 signed lower left: 'Fred Williams' gouache on paper 56.0 x 77.5cm (22 1/16 x 30 1/2in).FootnotesPROVENANCE Mr and Mrs John A O'Hara, United States Sotheby's, Melbourne, 29 November 2004, lot 3 Savill Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso) Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 2005 EXHIBITED Fred Williams landscapes of a continent, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 11 March - 8 May 1977, cat. 31 We gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance of Lyn Williams in cataloguing this work. The 70s were a time of great transition in the work of Fred Williams particularly with regards to palette, perspective and approach to his subject matter. As the decade opened, the artist found a new form of expressiveness, which would transform his art. Patrick McCaughey notes, 'The 1974 landscapes mark the turning-point. The difficulties, the great challenge in method, colour and subject matter, were confronted in the studio and absorbed into Williams's new grand manner.'1 His refined minimalist landscapes of the 1960s gave way to a new expressionism with paint applied in richly-coloured daubs, each brush stroke swirled with lavish, exotic colours. 'Williams ranged widely for motifs; the Queensland rainforests (1971 and again in 1973), Flinders and Erith Islands in Bass Strait (1974), The River Murray in South Australia (1972), as well as exploring once again the familiar Victorian landscapes at Lysterfield, Lilydale, the Yarra at Kew, Dight's Falls and even the You Yangs.'2 This new direction in Williams' oeuvre was applauded, winning the Wynne prize for landscape painting with his masterpiece, Mt Kosciusko, in 1976, exactly 10 years after he first won in 1966. With the success came an ambitious exhibition schedule, including a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York – in which the present work was one of forty artworks selected for this significant exhibition and was sold by then curator William S Lieberman to Mr and Mrs John A O'Hara, Connecticut, in the lead up to the exhibition. 'At the media preview for Fred Williams Landscapes of a continent at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1977, Williams said: 'I will never paint anywhere but in Australia because I know Australia... It would be impossible for me to paint anywhere else. I must be inside looking out – not outside looking in. Here he was on his first visit to the United States, having just turned fifty, looking at his own exhibition at MoMA; the first solo show of an Australian artist at this institution. It was a prestigious honour to be invited and also remarkable that Williams's first international solo show was held 'at the torch-bearing institution of the modernist movement... then, as now, the most important of Modernism's institutions'. The exhibition included a relatively substantial showing of his gouaches emphasising his strengths as a painter in this medium. The works spanned a period from 1962 until 1977, making it a concise retrospective of his paintings on paper'.3 Alex Clark 1. Patrick McCaughey, Fred Williams 1927-1982, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 1996 (revised edition), p. 263 2. Patrick McCaughey, Fred Williams Bay Books, Sydney, 1980, p. 226 3. Deborah Hart, Fred Williams Infinite Horizons, exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2011, p. 157
Fred Williams (1927-1982)Burnt Ti Trees, Flinders Island, 1974 signed lower left: 'Fred Williams' gouache on paper 56.0 x 77.5cm (22 1/16 x 30 1/2in).FootnotesPROVENANCE Mr and Mrs John A O'Hara, United States Sotheby's, Melbourne, 29 November 2004, lot 3 Savill Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso) Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 2005 EXHIBITED Fred Williams landscapes of a continent, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 11 March - 8 May 1977, cat. 31 We gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance of Lyn Williams in cataloguing this work. The 70s were a time of great transition in the work of Fred Williams particularly with regards to palette, perspective and approach to his subject matter. As the decade opened, the artist found a new form of expressiveness, which would transform his art. Patrick McCaughey notes, 'The 1974 landscapes mark the turning-point. The difficulties, the great challenge in method, colour and subject matter, were confronted in the studio and absorbed into Williams's new grand manner.'1 His refined minimalist landscapes of the 1960s gave way to a new expressionism with paint applied in richly-coloured daubs, each brush stroke swirled with lavish, exotic colours. 'Williams ranged widely for motifs; the Queensland rainforests (1971 and again in 1973), Flinders and Erith Islands in Bass Strait (1974), The River Murray in South Australia (1972), as well as exploring once again the familiar Victorian landscapes at Lysterfield, Lilydale, the Yarra at Kew, Dight's Falls and even the You Yangs.'2 This new direction in Williams' oeuvre was applauded, winning the Wynne prize for landscape painting with his masterpiece, Mt Kosciusko, in 1976, exactly 10 years after he first won in 1966. With the success came an ambitious exhibition schedule, including a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York – in which the present work was one of forty artworks selected for this significant exhibition and was sold by then curator William S Lieberman to Mr and Mrs John A O'Hara, Connecticut, in the lead up to the exhibition. 'At the media preview for Fred Williams Landscapes of a continent at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1977, Williams said: 'I will never paint anywhere but in Australia because I know Australia... It would be impossible for me to paint anywhere else. I must be inside looking out – not outside looking in. Here he was on his first visit to the United States, having just turned fifty, looking at his own exhibition at MoMA; the first solo show of an Australian artist at this institution. It was a prestigious honour to be invited and also remarkable that Williams's first international solo show was held 'at the torch-bearing institution of the modernist movement... then, as now, the most important of Modernism's institutions'. The exhibition included a relatively substantial showing of his gouaches emphasising his strengths as a painter in this medium. The works spanned a period from 1962 until 1977, making it a concise retrospective of his paintings on paper'.3 Alex Clark 1. Patrick McCaughey, Fred Williams 1927-1982, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 1996 (revised edition), p. 263 2. Patrick McCaughey, Fred Williams Bay Books, Sydney, 1980, p. 226 3. Deborah Hart, Fred Williams Infinite Horizons, exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2011, p. 157
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