The Boyd Collection Gallery enables visitors to access and engage with Bundanon’s rich Art Collection, year-round, ensuring the Art Museum is open continuously for our visitors.
Showcasing highlights alongside lesser-known works, the Boyd Collection Gallery supports Bundanon’s artist educators to develop inspiring, multi-generational learning experiences that build a deeper connection to the stories of Bundanon including Australian landscape painting, First Nations stories and the Artists-in-Residence program.
This inaugural display in the Boyd Collection Gallery presents key works by Arthur Boyd drawn from the Bundanon Collection. They range from early landscape works from the 1930s, to the energetic explorations of the 1960s and mythological narratives of the 1970s, through to the larger, landscape-focused painting of the 1980s which takes the Shoalhaven as its focus. Selected ceramic works represent the important legacy of the family’s Murrumbeena pottery and its influence on Boyd’s creative practice throughout his career.
The Boyd Collection Gallery
Arthur and Yvonne Boyd’s gifting of Bundanon to the Australian people in 1993 was driven by an expansive creative vision. The Boyds felt passionately that the arts are for everyone, and that proximity to art and artists was essential for a thriving and ethical society.
A significant part of the Boyds’ legacy is the Bundanon Collection, which includes artworks by Arthur Boyd and the Boyd family, stretching across the generations. Alongside a substantial number of works by Arthur’s father Merric Boyd, the Collection holds works by Boyd’s contemporaries, as well as the furniture, library and archives of the Boyd family. Today the Collection also holds new contemporary commissions, as well as key works by Boyd that have been generously donated.
The Collection underpins the Boyds’ vision for Bundanon as a unique ‘working arts centre’, supporting the development of arts practice and research across all disciplines, and enabling public access to the arts. Reflecting its unique bush and river setting, the Boyds also sought to encourage an appreciation of the intrinsic value of landscape and the natural environment in our lives.
History of the Collection
The Collection offers a window into the philosophy and practice of one of Australia’s most iconic artists.
It reveals Arthur & Yvonne Boyd’s commitment to their family’s artistic legacy, to the physical landscapes of the Bundanon properties on the Shoalhaven River, and to supporting and furthering creative practice across mediums.
Each year the Collection continues to grow and since 1996 an additional 1,000 works have been added from artists in residence, weaving contemporary practice into the story Bundanon upholds, of the Boyd family and their historic legacy.
This important story, forms a research archive and a reference point for Bundanon’s past, present and future.
ACCESS
The Boyd Collection Gallery is an accessible exhibition with several resources available below and at the Art Museum Reception. Visitors are advised that this exhibition is an 100% visual exhibition, predominantly featuring painting, sculpture and ceramics.
Sensory Map
The sensory map for the Boyd Collection Gallery includes information specifically on the Art Museum and current exhibition, noise and lighting levels and other information relevant to sensory processing. Please contact the museum staff if you have any questions about the exhibition or Bundanon Relaxed dates for sensory-friendly visits to the exhibition.
Phone: +612 4422 2100 | Download the Sensory Map here
Large Print
Large print versions of the exhibition text are available to borrow from museum reception.
Seating
There is a small amount of seating in the exhibition. Individual seating is available from museum reception, please speak with the friendly staff if you would like extra seating to experience the show.
There is also a wheelchair available to borrow from the museum reception.
Audio Descriptions
Listen Here
Audio descriptions are available below for all of the works and wall texts in this exhibition. For support in accessing the descriptions below, please speak to the gallery reception staff.
Foyer Wall
Wall Text – Boyd Collection Gallery
Arthur Boyd, Potter throwing a pot with wife and dog, c1965
Wall One
Arthur Boyd, Man carrying carcass, 1955-56
Arthur Boyd, Falling figure, Shoalhaven, 1976
Arthur Boyd, The magic fish, c1978
Wall Two
Arthur Boyd, Hanging rocks and bathers, 1985
Arthur Boyd, Study for lovers in a boat, c1965
Arthur Boyd, Lovers on fire in a boat with kite, c1965
Wall Three
Arthur Boyd, Nebuchadnezzar in a clearing, 1968-1969
Arthur Boyd, Menalaus throwing down his sword before Helen, c1970
Wall Four
Arthur Boyd, Figure on Rocky point (Ricketts Point), c1938
Wall Five
Arthur Boyd, Rosebud Beach, 1937
Ceramics
Arthur Boyd, Man, woman and snake, c1981
Arthur Boyd, Two figures intertwined, c1981
