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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  28 Oct 2014 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  24
• Lot Description:
  Frederick (Fred) Ronald Williams
  (1927-1982)
  Trees and Rocks II 1963
  tempera and oil on board
  105 x 81 cm
  signed and dated 'Fred Williams 63' lower left; bears title and cat. no. 12 on label verso
• Provenance:
  From The collection of the late Alan Boxer
• Exhibited:
  The Boxer Collection, University Art Gallery, University of Melbourne, 1-30 August 1974, cat. no. 30; (Possibly) The Boxer Collection, Albert Hall, Canberra, October - November 1977 (no catalogue); The Boxer Collection: Modernism, Murrumbeena and Angry Penguins, The Nolan Gallery, Tharwa, ACT, 17 December 1981 - 28 February 1982, cat. no. 21; Crossing Cultures: Art From the Boxer Collection, Drill Hall, Canberra, May - June 2000, cat. no. 58
• References:
  The Boxer Collection, University Art Gallery, University of Melbourne, 1974, p. 4; (Possibly) The Boxer Collection, Albert Hall, Canberra, October - November 1977 (no catalogue); The Boxer Collection: Modernism, Murrumbeena and Angry Penguins, The Nolan Gallery, Tharwa, ACT, 1981, p. 3, 15; p. 14, (illustrated, plate 12); Crossing Cultures: Art From the Boxer Collection, Drill Hall, Canberra, 2000, p. 12
• Notes:
  Painted in the year he was awarded the Helena Rubenstein Travelling Scholarship, Trees and Rocks II, 1963, is a fine example taken from William's best loved period (1963-68), one which Patrick McCaughey defined as 'the richest and most consistent five years of Williams creative life'. McCaughey identifies the paintings of 1963-4 as those which 'came to be regarded as the quintessence of Williams, a touchstone by which all his other landscape styles and modes were to be judged.'1 This five year period marked the Williams' coming of age as a painter. At thirty-six, he was enjoying both local and internal popular and critical success, having recently been included in the Whitechapel's Recent Australian Painting in 1961, the Tate's Australian Painting exhibition of 1963 and the Australian Painting Today exhibition which travelled across Europe. The early 1960s was a period defined by the boom in the exhibition of and reception of Australian art in the UK which Williams savoured. However, whilst the art of compatriots such as Brett Whiteley and Nolan became slowly integrated and a part of the London art scene, Williams remained focused on refining his idiosyncratic Australian imagery. Although patterns of trees and rocks were present in William's work from the 1950s, the current painting was inspired by an environment in which artist was by now comfortable working in. Often sketching and painting en plein air excursions in and around the granite hills of the You Yangs, 60km west of Melbourne, Williams now synthesised the motifs of fallen trees, weathered rocks and scattered shrubs into reduced geometric forms in a uniquely novel manner. This essential treatment of the geological formations and clustered native vegetation, densely worked and compactly arranged, in honey and ochre stained sky and land, render Tree and Rocks II, 1963 an abstract-cubist essay of the classic Williams landscape. When discussing the Trees and Rocks series of 1963, McCaughey noted how Williams, 'was at home in the landscape É Trees and Rocks I and II remind us how much Williams remains a painter of feeling even in his most classical moments. Usually that feeling is channelled into augmenting his art but, occasionally, expressive energy boils over, as in these splendid paintings.'2 Oils from 1963 are either in institutional collections, or tightly held by private collectors, making the sale of this well-known work, an exceptionally rare one.3 1 Patrick McCaughey, Fred Williams: 1927-82, Bay Books, Sydney, 1980, p. 152-3 2 Ibid., p. 161 3 One of only two oils offered on the auction market, You Yangs I, 1963, from the Grundy collection set the record price paid for a painting by Williams when sold for $2.2 million at Bonham's, 26 June 2013.
• Estimate:
  A$120,000 - 180,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.