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Frederick Ronald Williams was born in Richmond, Melbourne, on 23 January
1927. He studied part time at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in
1942, then full time in 1943, and from 1946 to 1949. In 1951, he
travelled to London, where he worked as a picture framer and studied at
the Chelsea School of Art and Central School of Arts and Crafts.
Williams returned to Australia in 1956 and held first solo exhibition at
the Australian Galleries, Melbourne, in 1957. In 1961 he married Lyn
Watson. Awarded the Helena Rubinstein Travelling Art Scholarship in
1963, Williams visited Europe in 1964. From 1972 to 1974, he was a
member of the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board, from 1973 to 1976, a
member of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council, and from 1975
to 1982, trustee of the Australian National Gallery, Canberra. Williams
was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1976.
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Fred Williams, photo by Ernie McLintock
A solo exhibition was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in the
following year, which toured to Florida, Nebraska and Texas. Patrick
McCaughey's monograph Fred Williams, was published in 1980.
Fred Williams died in Hawthorn, Melbourne, on 22 April 1982. In 1987 the
Australian National Gallery organised a comprehensive retrospective
exhibition, which toured nationally. James Mollison's A Singular Vision:
The Art of Fred Williams was published in 1989.
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