Fred Williams: The London Drawings is the first exhibition dedicated to Williams’s London period (1952–56). The exhibition explores the range and power of Williams’s drawings from this formative period through some 160 drawings of extraordinary calligraphic energy. These include superb series of works that Williams made in London’s music halls, at the zoo, on the city streets, and in formal life drawing classes.

Presenting a surprising counterpoint to the artist’s celebrated, abstracted landscape paintings, these drawings reveal Williams’s early aspirations to be a figure painter. This early commitment to drawing and painting the human figure is less well known to the public and reveals Williams’s extraordinary observational skills and ability to capture the world around him.

NGV Senior Curator Cathy Leahy leads a tour introducing audiences to the exhibition and the full range Williams’s drawing oeuvre.