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Collection

An image of Trees on hillside II by Fred Williams

Fred Williams

(Australia, England 1927–1982)

Title
Trees on hillside II
Year
1964
Media category
Painting
Materials used
oil, tempera on hardboard
Dimensions

91.4 x 121.9cm

Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r., "Fred Williams 64".
Credit
Purchased 1965
Accession number
OA6.1965
Copyright
© Estate of Fred Williams
Location
Not on display
Further information

"Williams has whittled away every excess from his style. He works with the economy of the Oriental artist. The effect of a landscape is expressed with nothing more than a scattering of irregular spots - a flickering constellation of little shadows and glittering highlights."
- James Gleeson 1963

The You Yangs series of 1962-64 marked Williams' breakthrough to the characteristic, spatially ambiguous works regarded by many as the most significant of his career. In works of classical elegance and understatement, he realised his aim of using the landscape as a vehicle for formal invention.

From his first visit to this range of granite hills rising from the volcanic plain west of Melbourne, he had been fascinated by the scale of the landscape.

'You Yangs landscape' 1963 is from a brief and brilliant phase of Williams' career, when, spreading his points of focus across the entire landscape, he tilted it so steeply as to remove the sky and create a vertical reading of it. It is a work exemplifying his delight in rigorous geometry and the sheer beauty and capacity of the brushstroke to convey scattered trees and fence-lines. In the following year in which 'Trees on hillside II' was created, Williams' spots become patches and he introduces a high horizon line, heralding the beginning of his Upwey paintings.

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2000

Bibliography (16)

Edmund Capon, 10 Masterpieces of Australian Painting 1993, Domain, 1993, colour illus..

Manning Clark, A Short History Of Australia 1995, South Yarra, 1995, colour illus..

Richard Fullagar, Nature Australia Summer 2002-2003, 'Being human. The start of art?', pg. 74-75, Sydney, Summer 2002-2003, 1 (colour illus.), 75 (colour illus.). Article about the evolution of modern human behaviour through evidence found on an engraved piece of ochre at Blombos Cave in South Africa

Sasha Grishin, Australian painters of the twentieth century, 'Fred Williams', pg. 184-195, Roseville, 2000, 184 (colour illus.).

Bruce James, Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, 'Australian Collection: Painting and Sculpture', pg. 102-181, Domain, 1999, 163 (colour illus.).

Hendrik Kolenberg, Look Nov 2004, 'Celebrating Fred Williams', pg. 24-25, Newtown, Nov 2004, 24.

Walter Kommer (Editor), The Australian 23 Jan 1965, Surry Hills, 23 Jan 1965.

Barry Pearce, Art treasures: candidate citites for the 2000 Olympic Games: Beijing, Berlin, Brasilia, Istanbul, Manchester, Sydney 1993, 'Trees on hillside II', pg. 174, Lausanne, 1993, 174, 175 (colour illus.). cat.no. 8 Sydney

Barry Pearce, Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 'Landscape and gesture', pg. 239-240, Domain, 2000, 253 (colour illus.), 302.

Keith Sinclair (Editor), Age 23 Jan 1965, Melbourne, 23 Jan 1965.

William Splatt and Barbara Burton, 100 masterpieces of Australian painting, Adelaide, 1973, 204, 205 (colour illus.). plate no. 99

The Creative School Supply Company, Landscapes: 1788-21st Century Australian 2004?, Box Hill, 2004?, (colour illus.). card no. 8

Editor Unknown (Editor), The Sydney Morning Herald 23 Jan 1965, Sydney, 23 Jan 1965.

Unknown (Editor), Sunday telegraph 24 Jan 1965, Sydney, 24 Jan 1965.

Editor Unknown (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales picturebook, Domain, 1972, 117 (colour illus.).

Editor Unknown (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales Quarterly Apr 1966, Sydney, Apr 1966, (illus.).

Exhibition history (4)

Archibald, Wynne and Sulman (1964), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 23 Jan 1965–21 Feb 1965

Art Treasures of Olympic Cities, Lausanne Olympic Museum, 22 Jun 1993–03 Oct 1993

Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000

Australian modern masterpieces from the Art Gallery of New South Wales: