Fred Williams, Painter and Printmaker, At Queensland Art Gallery Till 15th March 2014

Another blog from our guest blogger Normana Wight.

HURRY!

Currently, there is a wonderful little exhibition of the work of Australian artist, Fred Williams (1924 -1982). This is a rich endowment of goodies belonging to the Queensland Art Gallery; mostly a gift from former director of the National Gallery of Australia, James Mollison. There are mostly prints; a large collection of etchings and some lithographs. These are supported by a handful of characteristic and varied paintings.

If you have seen this show, and need to know more, pop across to the State Library, where there are some appropriate books.

For example; Patrick McCaughey’s definitive book, Fred Williams, includes a lithograph,’Waterfall.’ which the library has framed.  There is also a bound, handsome book Fred Williams : music hall etchings 1954-1956, with a number of prints made from the original plates, printed at Lyre Bird Press in 1997.

As you know, prints and books have a close relationship, historically. When I was a student at RMIT in the 1950’s Printmaking was called ‘Art of the Book.’

As you probably also know, Williams was the artist who finally ‘nailed’ the Australian landscape for the second half of the 20th century. Since then, landscape has moved right along, for example with indigenous painters like Rover Thomas, or the computer manipulated works of Daniel Crooks.