Arthur Boyd

24 July 1920
Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd is born at Murrumbeena, a suburb of Melbourne, to Merric and Doris Boyd (ceramist and painter respectively). Grandparents Arthur Merric and Emma Minnie were also artists. Grows up at Open Country in an environment where everyone is encouraged to paint, draw or model in clay.

1936
Following the death of Emma Minnie, Arthur Merric moves to Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula. Arthur lives there with him for three years, painting landscapes and family portraits with his grandfather's encouragement.

1941 to 1944
Army service. Meets painter Yvonne Lennie and other artists, including Sidney Nolan, John Perceval, Joy Hester and Albert Tucker. Exhibits with Contemporary Art Society.

1945 to 1955
Painting and ceramics occupy him full time. Lives with Yvonne, who he marries in 1945, at Murrumbeena in a studio he builds to a design by cousin Robin Boyd. In 1949 Martin Boyd commissions him to paint murals at The Grange, an 1860s a' Beckett family home near Berwick. Travels include southern NSW, Victoria and the Northern Territory (where he experiences tribal aborigines for the first time).

1955 to 1959 Moves to Beaumaris with Yvonne and children; continues ceramic production and painting, including major ceramic commission for Melbourne Olympics in 1956. Represents Australia with Sir Arthur Streeton at the 1958 Venice Biennale. In November 1959 travels with his family to England.

1960 to 1962 Immediate critical acclaim with first solo exhibition in London of mostly Half-caste Bride paintings in August 1960. Continues work on Bride paintings and designs sets and costumes for Stravinsky’s ballet Renard. Major retrospective exhibition at London's Whitechapel Gallery.

1963 to 1967 Work includes theatre design, paintings and ceramic paintings; takes first and only flight to Paris with Sidney Nolan in 1966 for major Picasso show; begins Nebuchadnezzar paintings in response to self-immolations by Vietnam War protesters near his Hampstead Heath home. Franz Phillips' Arthur Boyd published by Thames and Hudson. 1968 Returns to Australia, travelling in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. Sees drawings made by his father in the last years of his life and produces the Potter series in homage to his parents.

1968-70 England; spends time in Suffolk painting landscapes. Retrospective exhibition in Edinburgh 1969. Lady and the Unicorn collaboration with Peter Porter in 1970.

1971
Returns to Australia in October to take up a Creative Fellowship at the ANU, Canberra. Visits Bundanon for the first time at the invitation of part-owner, Frank MacDonald. Winner Britannica Australia award for the arts 1971 1972 Bundanon has a profound effect. Returns to Canberra early 1972 and paints plein air using landscape and figures in landscape and the colours and high key tones of the Shoalhaven; returns to England 1973-74 In England continues work inspired by Shoalhaven landscape, including paintings questioning his calling as an artist. Major exhibition Fischer Fine Art, London

1975
Inspired by the election of Gough Whitlam, after several years finalising and negotiating the gift, assisted by Joseph Brown, presents major gift of paintings, ceramics, prints and drawings to the National Gallery of Australia; continues Shoalhaven work and collaborates with poet Peter Porter on The Lady and the Unicorn, their second joint work; Porter’s visit to Riversdale also results in a third collaboration, Narcissus.

1976-77
England; major exhibition Fischer Fine Art, London, Narcissus series, Narcissus in the Shoalhaven landscape, in 1977.

1978
ABC/BBC co-production A Man of Two Worlds

1979
Returns to England in January; awarded AO for services to art

1982-83
Makes family house in Tuscany, Paretaio, available to the Australia Council's Visual Arts Board for artists travelling overseas; returns to England early 1982; Sandra McGrath's The Artist and the River published by Bay Books

1984
Returns to Australia and Bundanon in February. Paints a series of large, iconic Shoalhaven images based on the river and bush around Bundanon, including the maquette for the Parliament House tapestry. Commissioned to design tapestry for Great Hall of New Parliament House and 16 canvasses for the foyer of Victorian Arts Centre; made Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Melbourne

1985
The Shoalhaven works are shown at Australian Galleries in Melbourne (July) and Holdsworth Gallery in Sydney (November).

Returns to England. Seven Persistent Images, an exhibition by the Australian National Gallery drawn from the 1975 Arthur Boyd gift shown at the gallery and regional galleries in several states through to 1986; film Arthur Boyd in the Landscape made for London Weekend Television

1986
Ursula Hoff's The Art of Arthur Boyd published by Andre Deutsche, London

1988
Represents Australia at Venice Biennale; The Australian scapegoat Irish-Australian of the Year

1990
Patricia Dobrez and Peter Herbst's The Art of the Boyds published by Bay Books

1992 28
November, Sir Sidney Nolan dies in London

1993
Works in collaboration with Indra Deigan on a limited edition artist book Sangkuriang a legend of West Java; Print suites The artist and the Muse and The journey are completed

1994
Janet McKenzie's Arthur Boyd at Bundanon published by Academy Editions, London Arthur Boyd Retrospective exhibition shows at National Gallery of Victoria, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Western Australia

1995
26 January Prime Minister Paul Keating announces Arthur Boyd as ‘1995 Australian of the Year’ for his contribution to Australian art and the generosity of his many gifts to the Australian people. The Boyds return to Australia by container ship in May and receives award in person from the Prime Minister at Bundanon in August

1997
Leaves Bundanon for the last time

1999
Returns to Australia for the opening of the Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre at Riversdale but is too sick to go.

24 April Arthur Boyd dies in Melbourne.

Reference: Bundanon Trust: the early years, David Chalker, 2005
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