Australian Landscape Depiction

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Artist’s Exploration of the Australian Landscape

Boababs and Termite Hills, Kimberleys, 1979. Gouache, 75x57cm

Boababs and Termite Hills, Kimberleys, 1979. Gouache, 75x57cm
The unique Australian landscape has been the subject of many Australian artists’ works over the years. However, each artist’s interpretation and representation of the landscape has been influenced by their practice and world. The typical “flat, dry and endless” Australian landscape depiction has been abandoned in recent times as modern and contemporary artists strive to express their views of the land in new ways.

Fred Williams is a modern Australian artist whose unique depictions of the Australian landscape defied the unity expressed in other modernist artists of the time. Born in Melbourne in 1927, Fred Williams was able to establish his own individual style of art. Influenced by post-impressionists, particularly Cézanne, Fred Williams became known for his ability to manipulate colour and line
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Fred Williams was influenced by Aboriginal art. Some of his landscapes depicted the landscape from an aerial perspective with a map-like quality, the picture being filled by deliberately placed marks. Experimenting with new techniques and different colour palettes, Williams was able to create an impressive display of varying artworks in his later years. His artworks often reflected the response that he had to the landscape, as well as displaying his mood at the time.

As John Brack said in Fred Williams’ eulogy “Fred brought us a new vision of Australia’s landscape… changed the way we see our country: an achievement which will live long after all of us are gone”. Fred Williams was a unique artist of the modernist period, expressing his response to the Australian landscape in an innovative and unique

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