Back

Fred Cress 1938 - 2009

Until his death in October 2009, Fred Cress was after two decades Australia's most foremost abstractionist. Cress was a committed realist, producing works of great power and presence which cover the gamut of human emotions and weaknesses: love, hate, lust, envy and greed. But he also painted works of great beauty and serenity, lyrical landscapes and architectural studies which are the stage for his human dramas. Fred Cress was academically trained and with a highly disciplined approach to his work.

Cress never let his public take him for granted. He never allowed himself to become complacent or narrow in his thinking. Each new decade brought challenges both for the artist and the dealers and collectors who supported him.

As a mature painter he found both critical and material success and, as his popular Archibald Prize win of 1988 attests, the admiration of a wide audience. His world was divided between Sydney and rural France, an existence which gave him the best of both the old and the new worlds, the life of an international artist.

Part Quoted by Gavin Fry - Artists Writer, Publisher and Museum Director
From his book, "Fred Cress", 2000

Auction Record
Record Strangers Before Acrylic on canvas, signed, dated and inscribed 'Cress/Strangers Before 1991' on the reverse, 167 x 198 cm, Est: $20,000-30,000 Christies Sydney 23/08/2004, Lot No. 79

Awards
1988 Archibald Prize for Portraiture, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1992 Studio, Cit International des Arts, Paris
1995 Judged Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1965-2002 Over 60 one-person exhibitions and 90 group exhibitions
2003 Awarded an AM for services to Visual Arts in Australia
Currently Fred Cress lives in Sydney and Burgundy, France

Back