The Boyds

The Boyd family is Australia's most remarkable artistic dynasty.

- The Boyds, Brenda Niall, 2002.

ARTHUR BOYD

Born into a lineage of gifted painters, potters, musicians and architects, Arthur Boyd became the most celebrated member, in Australia’s cultural history, of that revered artistic family. After spending his youth painting idyllic impressionist landscapes and portraits of the places and people that surrounded him in the family haven at Murrumbeena in Victoria, the onset of WWII was the catalyst for the dramatic shift towards the highly expressive and personal style, which characterised his painting from during the 1940s onwards. Influential in Boyd's development were artists associated with art patrons, John and Sunday Reed such as Nolan, Tucker, Perceval and Bergner. Boyd’s images of the deprivation of modern urban society in the war years, infused thematically with Old Testament narrative, was influenced by German Expressionism, Surrealism and the northern European painting tradition. His explorations as a painter-ceramicist yielded a series of monumentally conceived terracotta masterpieces. In the 1950s his poetic depiction of the luminous Wimmera landscape transformed the surface of his paintings with the rich combination of oil, tempera and resin, reflecting his constant experimentation with differing materials and modes of expression. Following his move to England in 1959 where he achieved significant success, Boyd began to explore the medium of printmaking, producing etchings, lithographs and illustrated books. In 1979 the artist purchased a property on the Shoalhaven River where his depictions of the infinite variety of this magnificent landscape fuelled his artistic imagination until his death in 1999.

See Arthur's life by dates in the Arthur Boyd Visual Timeline.

BOYD FAMILY

Arthur Boyd (1920-1999) was part of a unique artistic dynasty. His grandparents Emma Minnie (nee a’Beckett) and Arthur Merric Boyd were both accomplished and recognised artists, exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London and in various galleries in Melbourne. They had five children, the second being Merric Boyd, known as the father of Australian studio pottery. Merric struggled with epilepsy throughout his life and was well loved and cared for by his family.... more.