William Frater: A Life with Colour

AUSTRALIAN ART
“William ‘Jock’ Frater (1890-1974) was one of Australia’s most prominent early Modernists. Frater is acknowledged by art historians to be the painter who introduced Post-Impressionist principles to Australia and challenged the notion that art is an imitation of nature. Today his work is found in most public galleries and many private collections throughout Australia. Born in Scotland, where he studied painting and stained-glass design, Frater was exposed to contemporary European art through his earliest training in Glasgow and during travels in Europe. In 1914 he settled permanently in Australia where, during the next twenty-five years, he established a reputation as a craftsman and stained-glass designer. Although he studied painting briefly with Max Meldrum, one of Melbourne’s most outspoken Modernist painters, Frater soon developed his own technique which, influenced particularly by Cezanne, combined Meldrum’s emphasis on tonal values with the use of expressionistic colour. As a teacher, lecturer and polemicist in Melbourne during the 1920s, Frater was a leader of the local Modernists. In later years he was an influential figure at the Victorian Artists’ Society, of which he was a revered president for a decade from 1963. This first monograph on Frater’s life and work presents original biographical research and includes 32 colour plates with appreciations. A catalogue of Frater’s works held in public collections and a list of exhibitions and reviews provide an essential resource for the study of the artist’s work.”
xiv, 129 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 30 cm. #190822
Frater, William, 1890-1974. | Artists — Australia — Biography. | Painting, Modern — 20th century — Australia.