Arthur Boyd
He was a member of the prominent
Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia, with many relatives being
painters,
sculptors,
architects or other arts professionals. His sister
Mary Boyd married
John Perceval, and then
Sidney Nolan. His wife
Yvonne Boyd née Lennie, was also a painter. He is represented in all Australian state galleries.
He was born at
Murrumbeena, Victoria. He attended night classes at the National Gallery Art School, in
Melbourne in 1935.
He produced several series of works, including a collection of 15
biblical paintings based on the teaching of his mother,
Doris Boyd née Gough. Later he produced a
tempera series about large areas of
sky and
land, called the Wimmera series.
In the 1940s he was a member of the
Angry Penguins artistic and literary group. His most well known work is perhaps his Half caste bride series in the 1950s, which he did based on his experiences of seeing Aborigines in
Alice Springs in 1951. He represented Australia with
Arthur Streeton at the
Venice Biennale in 1958. He joined the
Antipodeans Group in the 3f162hWhitechapel gallery. He started another well known series of works, Nebuchadnezzar is 1966. He returned to Australia in 1971, as one of Australia's most highly regarded artists. He bought properties at Bundanon on the
Shoalhaven River, and many of his ejIn 1975 he presented several thousand works to the
National Gallery of Australia. In 1979, he was honoured with the
Order of Australia. He represented Australia at the Venice Biennale again inuIn May 2000, his painting
Dreaming Bridegroom I (1957) sold for $957,000. Another painting of the Bride series,
Mourning Bride I (1958) has sold for $833,000.
er
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drgu n drink_bio.html Bio*
Bundanon propertyReferences
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Brenda Niall,
The Boyds, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 2002. (ISBN 0-522-84871-0)
