Title

Late Etchings 1970-1976 - Fred Williams.

Venues

Australian Galleries [Melbourne Stock Rooms]. (24 September 2024 – 12 October 2024)

Date

(2024)

Summary

Single-artist exhibition. Located: Australia (VIC). Prints.

Web address

https://australiangalleries.com.au/exhibitions/fr…

Country of context

Australia

Abstract

‘Fred Williams was a hinge on which the discipline of modern etching in Australia has swung. Many local artists made etchings before him. But, after he immersed himself in printmaking, creative attitudes were changed. What artists in this country now valued as they crafted an etching was different…
We see in these later etchings the proficiency and amplitude of a skilled master, how the artist crafted each new work much as expert painters handle oil pigment. There is eloquence to the creative decisions seen here. With a range of procedures from drypoint through to foul biting, he attended to the character of his inked lines. They now varied from slight to emphatic, fine to strong.

Its not so much that trees and rocks are translated into points, dashes and little smoky blobs. There is a subtle music to this mark making. The very lines sing.’

[excerpts from Fred Williams catalogue essay by Dr Christopher Heathcote, 2024, Australian Galleries media, 2024].

Last Updated

22 Sep 2024