We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Fred Williams / Australia 1927–82 / Yan Yean 1970 / Oil on canvas / 207.5 x 104.5cm / Purchased 1986 with the assistance of the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Estate of Fred Williams
Fred WilliamsYan yean 1970
On Display: QAG, Gallery 12
Yan Yean was created in the winter of 1970 when Fred Williams was painting en plein air with fellow artist John Perceval. Regarded as an important linking work, it combines elements of Williams’s minimalist paintings, his early experiments with oval and circle landscapes, and his ‘Upwey fire’ series.
The painting stands alone in its quality and aesthetic appeal. We are immediately drawn into the painting through a vibrant colour palette and pulled further in through a powerful contemplative element.
Yan Yean is the name of a major water reservoir in the city of Whittlesea, north of Melbourne, and a significant site for the Wurundjeri Wilum people. In Wurundjeri language, yan yean means ‘young boy’.
Fred Williams was born in 1927 in Melbourne. At the age of 16, he enrolled at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School where he was influenced by the teachings of Sir William Dargie who was head of the school at the time. He went on to attend the George Bell Art School in Melbourne, which introduced him to French Modernism.
In 1951 he travelled to London, where he studied at the Chelsea School of Art and regularly visited the British Museum. When Williams returned to Australia in 1957, he was struck by the landscape and proceeded to refine his aesthetic and techniques to develop a distinct, now iconic, interpretation of the Australian bush.
In the late 1970s, Williams embarked on numerous flight expeditions over northern Australia, including to Weipa on Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula and the Pilbara region of Western Australia. His ochre-rich minimalist aesthetic evolved through a unique mix of influences, aerial observations, and the interplay between printmaking, gouache, watercolour and oils.
From his early works of the 1960s to those he created just before his death in 1982, Williams shows an obvious empathy and affinity with the Australian landscape. He received the Order of the British Empire in 1976 and was awarded an honorary doctorate of law by Monash University in 1980.
Endnotes:
James Mollison, ‘Williams, Frederick Ronald (Fred) (1927–1982)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 18, 2012.
Discussion Questions
What is it about this landscape that makes it different to the other landscape paintings?
Classroom Activities
Using a phone or tablet, take a portrait shot of a section of landscape that includes the elements of sky, trees and earth. Sketch the image directly from your photograph. Now paint the image from memory without referring to your sketch or the photo.