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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian & International Art
• Sale Date:
  29 Aug 2016 ~ 6.30pm - Part 1 (Lots 1 - 78)
  30 Aug 2016 ~ 2.30pm - Part 2 (Lots 79 - 328)
• Lot #:
  52
• Lot Description:
  § Fred Williams
  (1927-1982)
  Ian Armstrong at Wedderburn 1971
  oil on canvas
  30.5 x 25 cm
  signed lower right: Fred Williams
• Provenance:
  Winter 2012 Fine Art Auction, GFL Fine Art, Perth, 12/06/2012, lot no. 45; Private collection, Perth
• Exhibited:
  Bodies & Minds, Charles Nodrum Gallery, 10 May - 2 June 2007, cat. no. 62
• Notes:
  Fred Williams is celebrated as one of Australia's greatest landscape painters whose genius was to carefully observe the bush and define the underlying structure and the focal points that exist within the apparent random cluster of vegetation. These patterns that occur as a profile of hills and valleys, he abstracted within his compositions to create a new vision of the Australian bush landscape. His painterly gestural approach has an immediacy and freshness in the way it captures apparent vistas, while also revealing close-focus detail and retaining tactility and vibrancy through his use of colour and tone. These abstract expressive qualities established Williams as a key artist of the 20th century, whose art continues to resonate and influence the art of today. Williams's discerning eye was based on his experience of working directly from nature, with a spontaneity that also found expression throughout his career in a discrete number of portraits. Primarily of friends and family, these informal 'friendship' paintings such as the present work - Ian Armstrong at Wedderburn 1971, provide insight into the world of Fred Williams, his family and circle of friends and associates. The painter Ian Armstrong (1923-2005) first became acquainted with Williams in the late 1940s when as students they were attending the National Gallery School (full-time) and the George Bell School (part-time). During these early days Armstrong posed for one of Williams's first portraits1 and in return Williams sat for a reciprocal portrait. 2 The two artists along with fellow student and painter Harry Rosengrave, frequently went on outdoor sketching trips to the Lilydale district where in 1946 they jointly bought a block of land and erected a ready-made hut. The trio held their first group exhibition together in February 1951 at the Stanley Coe Gallery in Bourke Street, Melbourne, which was opened by John Brack and reviewed by Arnold Shore. 3 Twenty years later Fred Williams painted the small portrait, Ian Armstrong at Wedderburn in 1971 on a visit to catch-up with Armstrong who had recently shifted to this town in Central Victoria. At this time Williams had started to move away from the somewhat subdued tonal range of colours that had charcterised his works of the previous decade, introducing brighter colours and textures, applied with a strong vigorous style. The use of high-keyed colour here, especially in the bright yellow tones of Armstrong's clothing and the painterly fluency of the strip of vegetation at the top, makes this small portrait a painterly 'gem'. The composition clearly struck a note with Williams who in the following year reprised the seated figure in an expansive tripartite 'strip landscape' painted in gouache.4 Frances Lindsay AM 1 Fred Williams, Head of Ian Armstrong 1948, oil on canvas, 38.8 x 26.1 cm, Castlemaine Art Gallery 2 See photo of 'Ian Armstrong's studio 1948-49', in M.Eagle and J.Minchin, The George Bell School, Deutscher Art Publications, Melbourne/Resolution Press, Sydney, 1981, p.129 3 Fred Williams, Portrait of Harry Rosengrave (c.1947), oil on canvas, 120.6 x 76.3, National Gallery of Victoria, was included in this exhibition 4 Fred Williams, Man in a Landscape 1972, gouache on paper, 58 x 77 cm, illustrated in Patrick McCaughey, Fred Williams, Bay Books, Rushcutters Bay, Australia, 1980, Fig.7, p.20 § Indicates that Resale Royalty of 5% will be applied to the hammer price of this work.
• GST:
  Please note GST will be charged on the hammer price
• Estimate:
  A$15,000 - 25,000
• 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.