Boyd, Arthur (1920-1999), was one of the most important Australian artists of the 1900’s. He produced work in a wide range of media, including painting, printmaking, ceramics, and sculpture. He was known particularly for his dramatic, intensely spiritual Expressionist paintings, which explore biblical and mythological themes. His paintings are often set in the Australian landscape, which inspired him throughout his career. His work also shows his concern for the colonial oppression of Aboriginal peoples and for environmental issues in Australia.
Arthur Boyd is the best-known member of a famous artistic Melbourne family. His grandfather, Arthur Merric Boyd, painted and made pottery, and his grandmother, Emma Minnie a’ Beckett Boyd, was a painter. Arthur Boyd’s parents, (William) Merric Boyd and Doris Boyd, were both potters. Boyd was taught pottery, drawing, and painting by his parents and grandparents. He received little other formal art training. Boyd’s first solo exhibition was held in Melbourne when he was 17.
During World War II (1939-1945), Boyd served as a cartographer in the Australian army. After the war, he founded a ceramic studio, the Arthur Merric Boyd Pottery Workshop, in Murrumbeena, near Melbourne, producing pottery and tiles. He continued to paint and associated with other artists, including Sir Sidney Nolan and Charles Blackman.
Boyd’s work was profoundly affected by the war, and his style and subject matter were influenced by the deprivation and suffering he had witnessed and his contact with Jewish refugees in Australia. He became interested in the work of European old masters, notably Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Hieronymus Bosch , and his painting concentrated on biblical themes, including Susanna and the Elders (1945-1946). From 1957 to 1959 he painted a major group of works known as his Bride series, describing the life of an Aboriginal man and his mixed-race bride. The paintings expressed his reaction to the alienation of the Aboriginal people in contemporary Australia.
In 1959, Boyd went to England, where he lived until 1971. A successful retrospective of Boyd’s work was held in London in 1962, establishing his reputation in Europe and helping to initiate British interest in contemporary Australian art. During this time, Boyd produced paintings and etchings that became more openly Expressionist in style. His imagery remained figurative—that is, it consisted of representations of recognizable subjects—and he became increasingly concerned with dark, mythological themes. In his Nebuchadnezzar series of the mid-1960’s, Boyd used the theme of Nebuchadnezzar as an allegory (a story apparently about one subject that is actually describing another underlying meaning or subject) to explore his political feelings, in particular his opposition to the Vietnam War . While in England, Boyd also created stage and costume designs for ballet productions, notably Robert Helpmann’s Electra at the Royal Opera House in London in 1963.
From 1971 until his death, Boyd divided his time between England and Australia, where he bought property in New South Wales, on the coast near the Shoalhaven river. His drawings and paintings of the area around Shoalhaven are regarded as the most atmospheric and poetic of his late work.
Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd was born on July 24, 1920, in Murrumbeena, Victoria. He married a fellow artist, Yvonne Lennie, in 1945. Their three children, Polly, Jamie, and Lucy Ellen, also became artists. Boyd was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1979. The Order of Australia is Australia’s highest award for service to the country or to humanity. In 1992, he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, a higher level in the Order. In 1995, Boyd was named Australian of the Year. He died on April 24, 1999.
