'Fred Williams kept a daily diary from 1963 until his death in 1982. Disciplined and meticulous, he recorded life in the studio, family life and his contact with artists, dealers and the art world-a page per day. At the beginning and end of each year, Williams would reflect on his progress, noting the ups and downs and plan for the coming year. The diaries contain studied reflections on his own art and offer an intimate picture of a major Australian artist at work. He maps out his work-small representations of what will become notable and important artworks-and makes comments about his contemporaries, with the occasional sharp judgement and snatch of art-world gossip, all notably without malice. The 1960s were crucial years for Williams. He moved from being a well-regarded painter to becoming a major Australian artist. Colour reproductions of his extraordinary paintings reveal their evolution and the struggles behind their making in his studio. The Diaries of Fred Williams is a generous and insightful glimpse into the private life and creative process of a giant of Australian landscape painting.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'The diaries of Fred Williams (1927-82) invite the inevitable, unfair, but instructive comparison with those of Donald Friend; unlike the latter, they are not a masterpiece of witty and incisive prose, filled with insightful and indiscreet comments about contemporaries, the life of the artist, and the social and cultural world of the author’s time. They are plainly written observations on the day-to-day life of a hard-working painter, with an emphasis on the practical; it would be wrong to describe them as modest or self-effacing, for manifestly they were not written with any thought of publication. Friend, steeped in the culture of past centuries, was well aware of composing a literary work like the great diarists of earlier generations; Williams was jotting down, especially at the outset, largely professional notes in a standard page-to-a-day business diary.' (Introduction)
'The diaries of Fred Williams (1927-82) invite the inevitable, unfair, but instructive comparison with those of Donald Friend; unlike the latter, they are not a masterpiece of witty and incisive prose, filled with insightful and indiscreet comments about contemporaries, the life of the artist, and the social and cultural world of the author’s time. They are plainly written observations on the day-to-day life of a hard-working painter, with an emphasis on the practical; it would be wrong to describe them as modest or self-effacing, for manifestly they were not written with any thought of publication. Friend, steeped in the culture of past centuries, was well aware of composing a literary work like the great diarists of earlier generations; Williams was jotting down, especially at the outset, largely professional notes in a standard page-to-a-day business diary.' (Introduction)
