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“And so bit by bit, layer by layer, plane upon plane, of expressions, of thoughts, of emotions, I mold the clay in other words, recapture the growth of a man throughout his life, that which makes him what he is. And only after the jig-saw puzzle of the face is completed, do I see the whole, only then can I judge if my first impression of the sitter was correct.” - FREDDA BRILLIANT

Fredda Brilliant was a woman who wore many hats.... “And so bit by bit, layer by layer, plane upon plane, of expressions, of thoughts, of emotions, I mold the clay in other words, recapture the growth of a man throughout his life, that which makes him what he is. And only after the jig-saw puzzle of the face is completed, do I see the whole, only then can I judge if my first impression of the sitter was correct.” - FREDDA BRILLIANT

Fredda Brilliant was a woman who wore many hats. She was an actress, a singer, scriptwriter, co-founder of a theatre, as well as a professional sculptor. Born in Poland in 1903, she emigrated to Australia in 1924. The following six decades saw her travelling extensively around the world while creating numerous sculptures of some of the greatest figures when it came to contemporary history, such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Krishna Menon, John F Kennedy, Indira Gandhi, Buckminster Fuller, and more. Brilliant's most famous work is a bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi situated in Tavistock Square in London.

For someone who received no formal artistic training and was largely self-taught, Brilliant had a deep understanding of what she was hoping to portray through her craft. "Fredda Brilliant's style of sculpture is so designed as to give light and shade appropriate to its character, and this light and shade changes with the point of view of the spectator... The kind of change of light and shade are determined by means of contour and texture. Just as brush strokes are the means of creating the surface-texture of a painting, so the use of the sculptor's fingers and tools are the means by which the surface and the contour of the sculpture receive its characteristic texture and shape." (Herbert Marshall, "The Sculpture of Fredda Brilliant - A Critique," Fredda Brilliant, Biographies in Bronze, New York: Shapolsky Books, 1986, p. ix)

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