Educator’s preview: Fred Williams in the You Yangs

Join us for a guided tour of Fred Williams in the You Yangs.

The enigmatic You Yangs range lies just over 20 km north of Geelong. Fred Williams first spotted the range in 1957 from the deck of the ship on which he was sailing home to Melbourne from London. Williams commenced drawing and painting in the You Yangs in 1962, and the geography provided him with various vantage points to focus on the distinctive rocky outcrops of the place, and the vast expanses of country that opened before him. It is his works of this period which led to what we now consider Fred Williams’s ‘classic’ or signature interpretation of the Australian landscape.

This exhibition aims to assemble all of the first series of paintings, some works from the second, later series, and the drawings, gouaches and prints that reveal in such marvellous depth Fred Williams’s working method. Works are being loaned from many public collections and the Estate of Fred Williams.

IMAGE:
Fred Williams
You Yangs landscape 1963
oil and tempera on composition board
The Wesfarmers Collection, Perth
© Estate of Fred Williams