Fred Williams was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1927 where he began his studies in art at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in the 1940s. Williams moved to England in 1951 and enrolled at Chelsea School of Art; despite being new to London, his works were displayed in three exhibitions during his first year there. Williams was notably prolific during his London years; inspired by street life and music halls, his figurative works also reflected the influence of Walter Sickert and Honoré Daumier, particularly in a substantial body of etchings he produced prior to his return to Australia in 1957.
Painter and printmaker Frederick (Fred) Ronald Williams was born on 23 January 1927 in Melbourne, Australia. In 1943 he enrolled in evening drawing classes at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School and later joined the life-class and painting school as a full-time student in 1946. He subsequently attended a course at the independent George Bell school, which had introduced the teaching of French modernism to Melbourne. In 1951 he contributed figure paintings and portraits to an exhibition at the well-known Stanley Coe Gallery. Williams had seen many exhibitions by the older established painters, Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd and, although he respected them, he did not wish to follow in their footsteps, considering that 'their paintings were very romantic and did not have enough substance' (Mollison, Australian Dictionary of Biography)
Williams moved to London in December 1951 to further his artistic studies and expand his knowledge of European art. Settling at 34 Summer Place, South Kensington in January 1952, he enrolled in life-drawing night classes at the local Chelsea School of Art. To make ends meet, he found a job nearby at Robert Savage's framing shop, a popular place among expatriate Australian art students to find casual employment. Through his work there, he came into contact with well-known figures in the British art world, including Francis Bacon and Roger Hilton, as well as fellow Australians, such as Tony Underhill and Louis James. Williams was given considerable responsibility in the shop, restoring old master and contemporary paintings of great value. He also studied many types of painting closely, including works by Impressionists and Post-Impressionists; in a letter to painter John Brack, he enthused about a Renoir picture he was allowed to take home for a few days (Bonhams website). Williams also gained important technical knowledge of frames, canvases, varnishes, supports and painting techniques, and later put this expertise to good use when creating his own works. Williams later described Savage’s as ‘the best art school in London’ (Gagosian Gallery website).
Through frequent museum visits, Williams became familiar with European modern and contemporary art, absorbing, in particular, the work of Cezanne, Matisse, and the Cubists, which prompted his continual search for formal innovation. Williams was also drawn to London music halls at the Angel in Islington, The Metropolitan, and the Chelsea Palace, where tickets were cheap and he could sketch the performers and their audience. Williams also liked to draw animals at London Zoo, often in the company of the Australian artist Francis Lymburner. During his first year in London, Williams participated in three exhibitions. Small tempera paintings were featured in the Kensington Artists' Spring Exhibition at Leighton House in March 1952, and a drawing of a male nude was accepted for the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. Williams also showed at the Redfern Gallery, where he sold two works, and contributed to the first exhibition of the newly formed Australian Artists' Association (AAA) in 1953. Rod Clarke, a fellow member of the AAA, first encouraged Williams to try etching. Williams briefly enrolled in 1953 at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, where the studio printer who assisted him had also worked as a printer for Walter Richard Sickert. In 1953–56, Williams used the facilities of the etching department at Chelsea to print from the plates he had drawn and etched at home. These etchings, influenced by Walter Sickert and Honoré Daumier, often featured street life and music hall subjects, as exemplified by The Haircut (1954–55, Tate), an etching, aquatint and engraving portrait of a woman having her cut by another woman behind her. During his time in London between 1954 and 1956 Williams was extremely prolific, producing over 100 etchings.
Due to lack of funds, Williams returned to Australia in 1957, where he focused on landscapes, producing increasingly abstract watercolours, paintings, and prints of trees. Parting from traditional landscape painting, his work was characterised by surfaces rich in texture and natural hues, such as ocean blues, rusted ochres and pale olive greens. Williams established himself as a leading artist, winning prizes, selling his work to public galleries and participating in international shows. His work was included in Bryan Robertson's Recent Australian Painting exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1961 and the Tate Gallery's Australian Painting exhibition in 1963. During the 1970s he painted rivers and seascapes in a strip format that grew out of his observation of the landscape in relation to the horizon. Fred Williams died in Melbourne, Australia on 22 April 1982. His work is represented in UK public collections, including the Tate and the British Museum, London. His etchings were the subject of a 2003 exhibition at the British Museum entitled Fred Williams: An Australian Vision.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Fred Williams]
Publications related to [Fred Williams] in the Ben Uri Library