A bit more cultcha

Another reason I went to Melbourne recently (see previous post) was to catch the Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons exhibition at the Ian Potter Centre of the National Gallery of Victoria.  This retrospective provided a tremendous opportunity to see somewhere in excess of one hundred works - I didn't count, but there was a lot - and to achieve a much greater sense of what Williams was trying to depict in his work.  

Burnt landscape, Fred Williams, 1968, oil on canvas

I love that borderland where the figurative slips into the abstract, which is precisely where he takes us through his exploration of the Australian landscape.

 Lightning storm, Waratah Bay, Fred Williams, 1971-72, oil on canvas

In fiction, too, I'm fascinated by that borderland: where the real becomes the surreal, if not the magical; where the ordinary becomes the extraordinary; where the prosaic becomes the lyrical.

Wild Dog Creek, Fred Williams, 1977, oil on canvas

You can see more Fred Williams at NGA.