Bundanon has announced The Hidden Line: Art of the Boyd Women, their Summer Exhibition running from 22 November 2025 – 15 February 2026.
The Hidden Line: Art of the Boyd Women repositions the creative practices of five generations of women from one of Australia’s most prominent artistic dynasties. Showcasing more than 300 powerful and diverse works, this timely exhibition brings into focus the women of the Boyd family – artists, designers, writers, and creative collaborators – whose contributions have long been influential yet overshadowed by their celebrated male counterparts.
Revealing a remarkable matrilineal line of artistic practices, the exhibition will present works by Emma Minnie a’Beckett Boyd, Lady Mary Nolan, Yvonne Boyd, Lucy Boyd Beck, Hermia Boyd and their descendants still practicing today including Lucy Boyd, Polly Boyd, Florence Boyd Williams and Ellen Green Boyd. Drawn largely from the Bundanon Collection, with key loans from the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Library, and Heide Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition spans painting, ceramics, sculpture, photography, and design, including several never-before-exhibited works from the Bundanon Collection.
Eight new commissions and recent works by contemporary Australian women artists are interspersed throughout the exhibition, including Pat Brassington, Elizabeth Dunn, Diena Georgetti, Helen Johnson, Narelle Jubelin, Camille Laddawan, Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM and Timna Taylor. These poetic, critical, and material responses to the work of the Boyds act as sensitive interventions and punctuations that encourage a reframing of accepted histories.
Curator Sophie O’Brien said: “The Hidden Line: Art of the Boyd Women is an invitation to reconsider the voices whose creative contributions have long informed, guided, and enriched the Boyd story, and to reimagine that legacy for the present.
Yvonne was a driving force in the creation of Bundanon as the organisation it is today — politically, environmentally, and in her support for artists. The Hidden Line honours the women artists whose commitment to the creative spirit, in themselves and in others, runs through the history of Australian art. Bundanon itself is the outcome of a strong matrilineal succession, and is carried forward by new generations of artists from around Australia who come into residence each year. The new commissions in the exhibition reflect this active engagement with artistic practice, resting at the heart of Bundanon.”
Highlights in the exhibition include: a series of portraits of the Boyd women by their peers and family; delicate watercolours by Emma Minnie a’Beckett Boyd (1858 – 1936), one of the rare female artists of her era able to have a full-time artistic practice with the support from her mother, Emma Mills; Yvonne Boyd’s Melbourne Tram (1944), depicting a feminine, human-centred counterpoint to male depictions of postwar Melbourne; Mary Nolan’s striking black and white photographs documenting family life in Australia, the UK, Italy and France most of which have never before been exhibited; mid-century ceramics by Hermia Boyd who established successful potteries studios with her husband and artistic partner David Boyd; and a series of paintings by sisters Lucy and Polly Boyd, highlighting the ways in which they took their creative inheritance forward.
Rachel Kent, CEO, Bundanon said: “We are thrilled to present this deep exploration into the Boyd women’s creative practices across generations. Too often in art history, women are remembered as subjects rather than makers; this important exhibition re-centres the women of this iconic artistic family as prolific creators, whose inheritance resonates today, embodied in the gift of Bundanon – a place dedicated to ongoing creativity and cultural connection.”
A new publication will accompany the exhibition, featuring essays and texts by Dr Helen Hughes, Jennifer Higgie, Anne Ryan and Dr Lisa Slade delving into the work of the Boyd women and its influence today.
Opening Weekend on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 November includes free access to the exhibition and will feature panel discussions with the exhibiting artists, an art workshop with Sarah Goffman, a live reading of a letter by renowned Australian artist Joy Hester to Yvonne Boyd, and a concert by a Norwegian ensemble led by composer-performer Benedicte Maurseth as part of the Boyd Music Series. Full weekend program to be announced soon.
Throughout the season, visitors can also book Bundanon’s Stay Weekends – an overnight stay in award-winning architecture immersed in art, culture and nature through an exclusive itinerary that invites deeper engagement with the landscape.
Upcoming dates:
For further information visit: bundanon.com.au
IMAGES AVAILABLE HERE
Ends
ARTISTS OF THE BOYD FAMILY (with birth and married names)
Emma Minnie a’Beckett (Boyd)
Helen a’Beckett Boyd (Read)
Cassandra Boyd
Charlotte Boyd (O’Donoghue)
Derry Boyd (Talvainn)
Ellen Boyd (Boyd Green)
Florence Boyd (Boyd Williams)
Jessica Boyd
Lenore Boyd
Lucinda Boyd
Lucy Boyd
Lucy Boyd (Boyd Beck)
Mary Boyd (Perceval, Nolan)
Polly Boyd
Sally Boyd (Boyd-Bellman)
Margot Gardner (Beck)
Doris Gough (Boyd)
Yvonne Lennie (Boyd)
Hermia Lloyd-Jones (Boyd)
Alice Perceval
Celia Perceval
Kitty Perceval
Tessa Perceval (Galloway)
Pip Ryan
CONTEMPORARY COMMISSIONS
Pat Brassington
Elizabeth Dunn
Diena Georgetti
Helen Johnson
Narelle Jubelin
Camille Laddawan
Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM
Timna Taylor
MEDIA CONTACTS
To request interviews, further information or imagery please contact Articulate: Siân Davies sian@articulateadvisory.com 0402 728 462 or Sasha Haughan sasha@articulateadvisory.com, 0405 006 035
ABOUT BUNDANON
Established in 1993, Bundanon was gifted to the Australian people by Arthur and Yvonne Boyd, representing one of the most significant acts of philanthropy in the history of the arts in Australia. Bundanon is located on 1,000 hectares of bush and parkland overlooking the Shoalhaven River, on the South Coast of New South Wales, two and a half hours from Sydney.
Bundanon’s mission is to operate the property as a centre for the creative arts and education, for scientific research and a place to explore landscape and engage with First Nations history and culture. The Bundanon Collection features some 1,448 works by Arthur Boyd together with Boyd’s better known contemporaries including Sidney Nolan, John Perceval, Joy Hester and Charles Blackman. Bundanon’s residency program and its learning programs, are an investment in Australia’s future. The Learning program is inclusive and designed for all ages, and within this welcomes around 5,000 school students for day or overnight visits each year. Bundanon’s Artist in Residence program is the largest program of its kind in Australia and spans a 30-year history. Every year, more than 250 artists and researchers from across artistic disciplines are in residence, embracing the visual and performing arts, literature, science, dance, music and environmental research. This provides important career opportunities for artists and researchers to develop their work in an inspiring environment.
Bundanon is supported by the Australian Government through the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications’ Office for the Arts, Create NSW, the University of Wollongong, Landcare Australia, and a range of other foundations, bequests and philanthropic contributions.
For more information visit www.bundanon.com.au
