Year Of Birth

1927

Year Of Death

1982

Biography

Fred Williams AO is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures in Australian art, celebrated for fundamentally redefining the way the Australian landscape could be represented. Following studies at the National Gallery School in Melbourne and the Chelsea School of Art in London, Williams developed a distinctive visual language that departed from traditional European pictorial conventions, employing innovative spatial structures, expressive mark-making and a uniquely Australian palette. Across his celebrated series depicting regions such as You Yangs, Lysterfield, Sherbrooke Forest and the Pilbara, Williams distilled the landscape into rhythmic arrangements of line, colour and form, creating works of enduring modernist significance. His paintings are held in every major Australian public collection, including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.