Fred Cress Self-portrait

Fred Cress was born in Poona, India in 1938, moved to the UK in 1948, studied at the Birmingham College of Art from 1954 to 1959, and migrated to Australia in 1962. Cress is a painter and print-maker and has exhibited widely in Australia and overseas. He was the Australian representative at the 5th Indian Triennale, New Delhi in 1982.

Cress won the Archibald Prize and was selected as the People’s Choice in 1988. His work is represented widely in public collections in Australia and in private and corporate collections overseas.

Cress said in relation to his 1995 entry: 'It is in part a self portrait but it is, most importantly, symbolic of the human condition… We come into this world naked and in fear and we spend most of our lives trying to deal with it. Bystanders is one of a series of works which deal with vulnerability. That the central figure is a self-portrait is incidental – this figure is everyman, and the painting as a whole is a comment on life in the organised games that we call work.’

A thematic approach to Cress’s work was taken in an exhibition held later in the year.