Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2018 The Hidden Language of Art: Symbol and Allusion.

Lecture title: The Iconography of Arthur Boyd Lecturer: Kendrah Morgan 29/30 August 2018

Lecture summary:

Acclaimed artist Arthur Boyd (1920–1999) was a master in a range of media but most widely recognised for the extraordinary allegorical that he produced in series across the course of his long career. This lecture focuses on how Boyd developed his distinctive and deeply personal symbolic language, exploring the evolution and meaning of specific motifs and how he applied and extended these in key sequences of paintings to create images of universal and lasting relevance. While Boyd’s work is stylistically diverse, his iconography is remarkably consistent, allowing us to identify what inspired and drove him, and made him one of the most important Australian artists of the twentieth century.

Slide list: Joshua Reynolds, 1. (Title image) Arthur Boyd, Wedding Group 1957-8, oil and tempera on composition board, 130 x 160 cm, private collection, .

2. (Clockwise from left) Arthur Boyd, Self Portrait in Red Shirt 1937, oil on canvas on cardboard, 51.5 x 45.4 cm, National Gallery of , , The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; Merric Boyd with Arthur and Lucy at Open Country, Murrumbeena (detail) c.1922, photographer unknown, Trust Archive, NSW; with her children 1929, photographer unknown, Bundanon Trust Archive, NSW.

3. (Left) Arthur Boyd, Untitled Landscape c.1934, 75.5 x 65.5 cm, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, gift of Dr John Green 2017; (Right)Albert Tucker, Arthur Boyd in his studio c.1945, gelatin silver photograph, 40.6 x 30.6 cm, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, gift of Barbara Tucker 2001.

4. (Left) Arthur Boyd, Three Heads (The Brothers Karamazov) 1938, oil on canvas mounted on composition board, 53.9 x 86.8 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift, 1975; (Right) Arthur Boyd, Progression 1941, oil on composition board, 91.2 x 56 cm, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, purchased from John and 1980.

5. (Clockwise from left) Arthur Boyd The Orchard 1943, oil on cotton gauze on cardboard, 63.4 x 75.4 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; The Hammock 1944, oil on cotton gauze on cardboard, 63.3 x 75.4 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; Figures on a Hammock below Flying Figure with Beast and Child 1942, reed pen and

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ink on paper, 26 x 36.7 cm, National Gallery of , Melbourne, purchased 1964; Arthur Boyd and Yvonne Lennie, , 1942, photographer unknown, Bundanon Trust Archive, NSW.

6. (Clockwise from left) Arthur Boyd, The Cripples 1943, oil on muslin on composition board, 53 x 69 cm, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, gift of the Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art and Design of Australia, to the National Gallery of Victoria 1981: Transferred to Heide Museum of Modern Art by the Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria 2005; Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The Cripples 1568, oil on panel, 18.5 x 21.5 cm, Louvre, Paris; Albert Tucker, Image of Modern Evil: Spring in Fitzroy 1943, oil on canvas on plywood, 58.7 x 69 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, gift of the artist 1982.

7. (Clockwise from top left) Arthur Boyd, Butterfly Hunter 1943, oil on cotton gauze on cardboard, 63.4 x 75.1 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; Figure in Factory Chimney with Beast 1942, reed pen and ink on paper, 25.9 x 36.4 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, purchased 1964; The Cemetery I 1944, oil on cardboard, 63.3 x 75.4 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; Merric Boyd, earthenware vase 1931, private collection.

8. (Clockwise from left) Arthur Boyd, The Mockers 1945, oil on canvas on hardboard, 84.3 x 102.2 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, , purchased 1965; Albert Tucker, Merric Boyd decorating a ceramic jug, Open Country, Murrumbeena c.1943, gelatin silver photograph, 30.2 x 40.2, Heide Museum of Modern Art, gift of Barbara Tucker 2001; Pieter Brugehel the Elder, The Triumph of Death 1562, oil on panel, 117 x 162 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid.

9. (Left) Arthur Boyd, The Mining Town (Casting the Money Lenders from the Temple) c.1946, oil and tempera on composition board, 87.4 x 109.4 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1974; (Right) Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The Tower of Babel, oil on panel, 114 x 155 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

10. (Clockwise from left) Arthur Boyd, Boat Builders, Eden 1948; Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus c.1558, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 73.5 x 112 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels; Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The Gloomy Day 1565, oil on wood, 118 x 163 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

11. (Left) Arthur Boyd, The Goat Girl 1953-4, oil, tempera and resin on composition board, 90 x 121.5 cm, private collection; (Right) , Station Blacks, Cape York 1953, oil on composition board, 60.5 x 72.5 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, purchased 1954.

12. (Clockwise from left) Arthur Boyd, Half-caste Wedding 1954, oil and amyl acetate on composition board, 122 x 160 cm, private collection; Arthur Boyd, Aboriginal Bride in a Truck c.1953, conté crayon on paper, 24.2 x 32.6 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; Marc Chagall, The Wedding 1944, oil on canvas, 99 x 74 cm, private collection.

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/hidden-language/

13. (Clockwise from left) Arthur Boyd, Half-caste Child 1957, oil on canvas, 150 x 177.5 cm, private collection, Melbourne; Arthur Boyd, photograph of an Aboriginal man, Central Australia, 1953, Archive; Arthur Boyd, Aboriginal woman by a shed 1953, fibre-tipped pen on paper, 28 x 38 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; Pablo Picasso, La Vie 1903, oil on canvas, 196.5 x 129.2 cm, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Arthur Boyd, Lovers on a Bench (detail) 1943, oil on back of composite board, 46.4 x 61 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift, 1975; Arthur Boyd, Moses Leading the People 1947, oil and tempera on composition board, 41 x 48 cm, private collection, Melbourne.

14. (Clockwise from left) Arthur Boyd, Bride Running Away, 1957, oil and tempera on composition board, 91.5 x 121.5cm, private collection; Arthur Boyd, Mother and Child 1954, glazed ceramic, 61 x 46 x 22 cm, University of Western Australia, Perth, Tom Collins Bequest Fund 1955; Brassai, plasters of Bust of Woman and Head of Woman, Boisgeloup, December 1932, Musee Picasso, Paris.

15. (Clockwise from left) Arthur Boyd, Wedding Group 1957-8, oil and tempera on composition board, 130 x 160 cm, private collection, Melbourne; Marc Chagall, The Bay of Angels 1962, lithograph, 76.2 x 55.8 cm, Musee Chagall, Nice; Arthur Boyd, Persecuted Lovers 1957-8, oil and tempera on composition board, 137.2 x 182.9 cm, Art Gallery of South Australia, , A.R. Ragless Bequest Found 1964.

16. (Clockwise from left) Arthur Boyd, Reflected Bride I, oil and tempera on composition board, 122 x 91.4 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Nerissa Johnson Bequest Fund 1999; Tintoretto, Narcissus, c.1555, oil on canvas, 147 x 190 cm, Galeria Colona, Rome; Tintoretto, The Origin of the Milky Way (detail) c.1575, oil on canvas, 148 x 165 cm, National Gallery, London.

17. (Clockwise from top left) Arthur Boyd, Bride with Lover (Bride Turning into a Windmill) 1960, oil and tempera on composition board, 121.9 x 152.4 cm, private collection; Arthur Boyd, Bride Drinking from a Pool 1960, oil on canvas, 153 x 183.2 cm, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria, gift of Eva and Marc Besen, 2001; Arthur Boyd, Figure in Landscape (Nude Figure Washing in a Creek III) 1961, oil and tempera on hardboard, 160 x 183 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Arthur Boyd, Nude Figure Washing 1961, charcoal on paper under polyvinyl on composition board, 154.5 x 197 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; Piero di Cosimo, The Death of Procris c.1495, oil on poplar, 65.4 x 184.2 cm, National Gallery, London.

18. (Clockwise from left) Titian, The Death of Actaeon 1559-76, oil on canvas, 178.4 x 198.1 cm, National Gallery, London; Arthur Boyd, Nude with Beast III 1962, oil on composition board, 160 x 182.9 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest 1966; Arthur Boyd, Nude with Beast II 1961-2, oil and tempera on composition board, 182.5 x 160 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975.

19. (Clockwise from lower left), Arthur Boyd, Nebuchadnezzar Eating Grass in a Hilly Landscape 1968-9, oil on canvas, 175 x 183 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; William Blake, Nebuchadnezzar, 1795, colour print, ink and watercolour on paper, 54.3 x 72.5 cm, Tate Gallery, London, presented by W. Graham Robertson, 1939; Arthur Boyd, Nebuchadnezzar on Fire and Daniel with Bound Arms 1968-9, oil on canvas, 174.6 x 183.1 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975.

20. (Clockwise from left) Arthur Boyd, Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream of the Tree 1969, oil on canvas 174.5 x 183 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; Arthur Boyd, Nebuchadnezzar Protecting his Gold 1968-9, oil on canvas, 174.4 x 182.7 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; Arthur Boyd, Nebuchadnezzar Struck By Lighting 1969, oil on canvas, 174.3 x 183.2 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975.

21. (Clockwise from top left) Arthur Boyd, Paintings in the Studio: Figure Supporting Back Legs’ and ‘Interior with Black Rabbit’ 1973-4, oil on canvas, 313.5 x 433.2 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift, 1975; , Constable Fitzpatrick and Kate Kelly 1946, enamel paint on composition board, 90 x 121.2 cm, National Gallery of Australia, gift of Sunday Reed 1977; Arthur Boyd, Chained Figure and Bent Tree 1973, oil on canvas, 152.4 x 122 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The Arthur Boyd Gift 1975; Arthur Boyd, Woman Holding Back Legs of Dog with Tree c.1942, reed pen and ink on paper, 26 x 29 cm, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, purchased with the assistance of the Australian Contemporary Art Acquisition Programme of the Visual Arts Boards of the Australia Council 1975.

22. (Left) Arthur Boyd, The Australian Scapegoat 1987, oil on canvas, 275 x 426.5 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, gift of the artist, 1994; (Right) Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat 1854-6, oil on canvas, 86 x 140 cm, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, United Kingdom.

23. Arthur Boyd, Morning, Pulpit Rock (Four Times of Day series) 1982, oil on canvas, 123 x 153 cm, private collection; Greg Weight, Arthur Boyd 1993, gelatin silver photograph, 44.9 x 36.5 cm, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004.

References:

Darleen Bungey, Arthur Boyd, A Life, Allen & Unwin, Sydney 2005. Grazia Gunn, Arthur Boyd: Seven Persistent Images, exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1985. Richard Haese, Rebels and Precursors: The Revolutionary Years of , Allen Lane, Melbourne, 1981. Deborah Hart, Arthur Boyd: Agony and Ecstasy, exh. cat, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2014. , The Art of Arthur Boyd, Andre Deutsch, London, 1986. Janet McKenzie, Arthur Boyd: Art & Life, Thames & Hudson, London, 2000. Kendrah Morgan, Arthur Boyd: Brides, exh. cat., Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne 2014. Barry Pearce, Arthur Boyd Retrospective, exh. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1994. Franz Philip, Arthur Boyd, Thames & Hudson, London, 1967. Zara Stanhope: Arthur Boyd: An Active Witness, exh. cat., Bundanon Trust, Nowra, NSW, 2013.

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/hidden-language/