Fred WILLIAMS
Australia 1927 – Australia 1982
England 1951-56

Tumblers 1967-68
oil on canvas
signed: u.r. (obscured)
165.0 (h) x 90.5 (w) cm
Private collection
© estate of Fred Williams

In Tumblers Williams extended the idea of his earlier painting Acrobats 1955 undertaken in London. More than a decade Music Hall works these extraordinary balancing figures are painted in bold, simplified tones; their forms distorted and abstracted to convey the idea of contortion and balance. The work conveys Williams’s awareness of British artist, Francis Bacon, who he met in London. He worked on several versions of the same subject and believed that this was one of his ‘bravest’ paintings.