WEIPA FIRES, CAPE YORK, 1977

Important Australian + International Fine Art
Melbourne
25 November 2009
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27

Fred Williams

(1927 - 1982)
WEIPA FIRES, CAPE YORK, 1977

gouache on paper

56.0 x 74.0 cm

signed lower right: Fred Williams

Estimate: 
$50,000 - 70,000
Provenance

Lawson~Menzies, Sydney, 6 December 2007, lot 265
Private collection, Melbourne

Related works

Cape York Bushfire, (1), 1977, gouache on paper, 56.0 x 75.5 cm, collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, in Lindsay R., & Zdanowicz, I., Fred Williams: Works in the National Gallery of Victoria, Paintings – Gouaches – Prints, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1980, p. 61 (illus.) (ref.: AC49 – 1980)

Catalogue text

The Cape York Bushfire series was painted from sketches and photographs made by Williams following a visit to Cape York in 1977. Following successful solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Williams was invited by one of the sponsors of those exhibitions, Comalco Ltd, to visit their mining operations at Weipa on the western side of Cape York peninsular.

Interestingly, although a common refrain by people experiencing the Australian landscape from the air is, 'that looks exactly like a Fred Williams!', this trip, late in Williams' career was his '...first really extensive view of the land from a light plane. He was impressed with the close aerial perspective and saw the landscape, as he wrote on 27 October, as 'remarkable...[it] has left an indelible impression'.1

1. Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1989, p. 229

DAMIAN HACKETT