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Fred Williams (1927-1982)
Biography
1927 Born, Melbourne
1943-47 Attended National Gallery School
1946-50 Attended George Bell Art School, Melbourne
1951-56 Travelled to London, worked as framer and attended part-time Chelsea School of Art & Central Art School
1957 Returned to Australia
1961 Married Lyn Watson
1961 Work included in the exhibition 'Recent Australian Painting' at the Whitechapel Gallery, London
1963 Moved to Upwey, in the Dandenong Ranges outside Melbourne
1961 Work included in the exhibition 'Australian Painting: Colonial, Impressionism, Modern' at the Tate Gallery, London
1964 Travelled to Europe on Helena Rubenstein Scholarship
1969 Moved to Hawthorn, Melbourne
1972-74 Member, Commonwealth Art Advisory Board
1973-76 Member, Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council
1975-82 Trustee, Council of the National Gallery of Australia
1976 Awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
1980 Awarded Doctorate of Law, LL.D (Honoris Causa) by Monash University
1982 Died, Melbourne
Selected Solo Exhibitions
Over 70 solo exhibitions since 1957, including:
1970 Heroic Landscape: Streeton to Williams, NGV
1971 Fred Williams Watercolours, QAG & Newcastle Art Gallery
1972 Fred Williams Retrospective, Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre
1973 Adelaide Festival Theatre Murals, Festival Theatre, Adelaide
1974-75 Ten Australians, Australia Council touring show, France, Italy, W. Germany, Great Britain, and AGNSW
1977 Paintings 1963-77, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
1977 Fred Williams - Landscapes of a Continent, MoMA, New York; toured Florida, Nebraska, Texas
1978 Fred Williams, Paintings, Gouaches & Lithographs 1976 - 1978 Touring exhibition, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney
1980 Fred Williams 1969-79, Australian Embassy, Paris Fischer Fine Art, London
1980 Fred Williams, Works in the National Gallery of Victoria, NGV
1981 Fred Williams: Painter/Etcher, NGA
1981-82 Fred Williams: Bass Strait Landscapes 1971-78, toured Tasmanian and Victorian galleries
1983-84 Fred Williams: The Pilbara Series, CRA touring show, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo
1987-89 Fred Williams: A Retrospective, National Gallery of Australia & tour of all State Galleries
1988 Fred Williams: The Pilbara Series, CRA touring show, London, Ulster, Belfast, Kilkenny
1994 Fred Williams: Etchings 1970-76 & The Guthega Paintings, Ian Potter Gallery, University of Melbourne
1995 Fred Williams: A Working Method, NGV
1996 Fred Williams: The Queensland Gouaches, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, and tour of 5 regional galleries, Queensland
1999 Fred Williams: Drawing the Exotic, Museum of Modern Art at Heide
2000 Fred Williams Pilbara Series, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne
2000-01 The Enduring Landscape: Gouaches by Fred Williams (from the collection of the NGV), Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne
2001 From Music Hall to Landscape, Fred Williams Drawings and Prints, AGNSW
2001 Fred Williams landscapes 1959 - 1981, Monash University
2001 Fred Williams drawing the nude, Museum of Modern Art at Heide
Group Exhibitions
1961 'Recent Australian Painting', Whitechapel Gallery, London
1962-63 'Australian Painting, Colonial, Impressionist, Contemporary', Tate Gallery, London
1963-64 'Australian Print Survey'
1964 Australian representative in Lugarno International exhibition of drawings and prints, Switzerland
1964-65 'Australian Painting Today', touring Europe
1963 'Young Australian Painters', Tokyo
1964 Represented in International Exhibition of Printmaking, Ljubujana, Yugoslavia and Prague
1965 Represented in first International Exhibition of Printmaking, Cracow, Poland
1966 'John Brack and Fred Williams', Arts Council of Australia, Canberra
1970 'Heroic Landscape: Streeton - Williams', National Gallery of Victoria
Awards
1963 Helena Rubenstein Travelling Art Scholarship
1963 Georges Invitation Art Prize - second prize
1964 Won Transfield, Muswellbrook and Robin Hood Prizes
1966 Georges Invitation Art Prize - first prize
1966 Wills Prize, Sydney
1966 Wynne Prize, Sydney
1966 Trustees Watercolour Prize
1966 John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize
1976 OBE conferred
1976 Wynne Prize, Sydney
1976 Print Council of Australia Print Prize
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
All major regional galleries of Australia
Commonwealth Collection, Canberra
Parliament House, Canberra
Sydney Opera House Trust
Adelaide Festival Theatre
British Museum, London
Tate Gallery, London
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Queen Elizabeth II Collection, U.K.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.
Centre for Contemporary Art, Hamilton, New Zealand
University, corporate and private collections in Australia, England, U.S.A., France, Hong Kong and South Africa
Source:
‘Fred Williams: Watercolours' catalogue, Newcastle City Gallery
Rex Irwin website
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