Fred Cress
Frederick Harold Cress (10 July 1938 – 14 October 2009) was a British painter who migrated to Australia and won the Archibald Prize in 1988 with a portrait of John Beard. Cress was born in Poona, British Raj, but went to England with his parents in 1948, when he was ten. He was educated at the Birmingham College of Art in England, and migrated to Australia in 1962 as a "ten pound Pom", meaning that he only had to pay ten pound for his fare to Australia.
Also recorded as Frederick Cress · Frederick Harold Cress
Fred Cress
- Name
- Fred Cress
- Birth Name
- Frederick Harold Cress
- Born
- 10 July 1938
- Birthplace
- Poona, British Raj
- Died
- 14 October 2009
- Place of death
- Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Awards
- 1988 Archibald Prize
- Nationality
- Australia
- Occupation
- painter · artist
- Education
- Birmingham Institute of Art and Design
- Honours
- Archibald Prize · Member of the Order of Australia
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wikidata · Q2781406 · wikipedia · Fred Cress
In this article
Biography
Biography
Cress met the painter Anne Judell and married her in 1967; they divorced in 1991. He started his career painting figuratively but became well known for his abstract work in the late 60s and 70s. He returned to figurative painting in the late 80s after he won the Archibald Prize with a portrait of his friend and colleague, John Beard. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003 for services to visual arts. In 1990 Cress bought a 17th-century stone farmhouse in Southern Burgundy, France. He spent the next 20 years of his life living half the year in France and half the year in Sydney with his partner, the photographer, Victoria Fernandez. Many of Cress's later works have visual references to his time spent in France. Cress was diagnosed with prostate cancer in January 2003. In 2009 he declined to continue with treatment while he worked on his last exhibition, entitled 'End Game One', held in Australian Galleries, Paddington. He died on 14 October 2009.
Fred Cress studied at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. Work by Fred Cress is recorded in the collections of National Gallery of Victoria, Auckland Art Gallery, National Gallery of Modern Art, National Portrait Gallery and Art Gallery of New South Wales. Distinctions recorded are Archibald Prize and Member of the Order of Australia.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Fred Cress • Birth Name — Frederick Harold Cress • Born — 10 July 1938 • Birthplace — Poona, British Raj • Died — 14 October 2009 • Place of death — Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Awards — 1988 Archibald Prize
Representation
Representation
• Buratti Fine Art, Perth www.buratti.com.au • Australian Galleries, Sydney
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Pune.
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Sydney.
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Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Fred Cress, revision 1366050984 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Fred CRESS , National Gallery of Victoria.
- 2.Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Artist Fred Cress dies aged 71. 2009-10-14.
- 3.Sydney Morning Herald, 15 October 2009, p.20
- 4.CRESS, Frederick Harold, It's an Honour, 26 January 2003.
- 5.Simon Santow, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 14 October 2009.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 03 September 2026.
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