MEDIA RELEASE: 12th April, 2005 THE BOYDS FROM 1858 – An Inspiring and Creative Family 23rd April – 19th May, 2005 The Legacy of the Boyd Family The art, writing and other activities of the Boyd family are almost like a golden thread woven throughout Australia's history. On one level the Boyds could be described as archetypal Australian. Ancestors arrived here both voluntarily and under duress, the barriers of class and education so rigid in the northern hemisphere were modified by colonial circumstance. Fortunes were made, lost, and then made again, first through commerce and later through creativity. They have lived in cities and in the countryside. The rural wilderness that was their home in the years between the two World Wars of the 20th century, became the suburbs in the post-World War II expansion. They are typically Australian in that the family still moves across oceans, from new world to old, and back again. They do not forget their cultural links to the great traditions of Europe, and these continue to inform their lives. But the Boyds are different. In Renaissance Europe it was not uncommon to have generations of artists working in studios where the extended family worked with the apprentices to make art. Painting after all was a trade, not a calling, and artists learnt through apprenticeships. It is however some centuries since this has been the norm in the west, and it never was the practice in Australia. I sometimes wonder, however, if one of the reasons the young Arthur Boyd so admired the work of both Pieter Breughels was that he knew that they came from a family like his own, where the traditions of art were passed on through the generations, along with the name. The Boyds have always understood that creativity and morality are more important than wealth or position. These values were inculcated in them by Emma Minnie à Beckett Boyd, and her husband, the first Arthur Merric Boyd. Emma Minnie's convict grandfather was the source of the family's wealth, which came from his brewery. Her dominant legacy to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren was a passionate belief in justice, morality and a very stern Protestant faith. She is the source of the Biblical imagery that appears in the work of her grandsons, Arthur and David Boyd. Her husband, Arthur Merric Boyd, had a gentler regime. He never camped at Box Hill, but his art has to be seen in the context of the Heidelberg school, with its lyrical painterly landscapes of the area around Port Philip Bay. With his work there is a strong feeling for the tactile quality of paint, that is repeated in the work of all his descendants. Most strikingly the physical nature of the creative act emerged in the work of their second son, Merric Boyd, who drew in his old age, but is best remembered for the studio pottery he established with his wife, Doris Gough, at a house they called Open Country at Murrumbeena. By any measure Merric Boyd's pots are some of the most remarkable studio pottery ever made in this country. Gough, who decorated many of his ceramics was a major factor in making his art possible, but her own art was often in the shadow. Their five children — Lucy, Arthur, Guy, David, and Mary — came to maturity surrounded with an abundance of art, and financial deprivation. - 2 - The richness of their visual environment — the drama of the night firing of the kiln, the wild garden of their extended house, and most importantly the value that their parents and grandparents placed upon the creative process — helped mould these children into a most remarkable generation of Australian artists. The words of their Grandmother's Bible stories, with tales of judgement and surviving fiery furnaces, helped mould their visual imagination. It is no accident that Arthur and David Boyd especially produced some of Australia's most remarkable religious art. The artists who came to Murrumbeena found a generous climate, where their differences were accepted. Tales of experiences in Europe had an affect on the young Boyds. The young Jewish Polish refugee, Josl Bergner, told the Boyds and their friends about the terrible consequences of the rise of Hitler. Their knowledge of the nature of this evil is why the younger Boyds, who were pacifist by inclination, enlisted in the Australian army in World War II, although their objections to violence meant they did not kill. After the war, the Murrumbeena pottery was revived and expanded with the younger Boyds; including Lucy Boyd and her husband Hatton Beck and Mary Boyd's husband John Perceval. The ceramics made by their group, AMB, both helped rid the country of post-war austerity and gave new heart to the tradition of studio pottery. The next generation of Boyd and Perceval children, saw their own features immortalised in the art of their parents. They also grew with an awareness of beauty of landscape and the tactile nature of the making of art. They did not need a formal academy when their family was there to give them a fully rounded arts education. The different generations of the Boyd family learnt early about context and content as well as form and freedom. This is not to say that their art is homogenous. Far from it. The children of Merric Boyd and Doris Gough each took separate paths, and their children in turn have worked hard to establish separate identities as artists. Each member of the family paints, draws, throws pots or makes sculpture in a way that reflects their own personal preoccupations. There are however some shared characteristics. Jamie Boyd and Lucy Boyd in England, David Boyd in Sydney, and Tessa Perceval in her Wales studio all share a feeling for the expressive nature of paint. It could be that this is the legacy of Merric Boyd and the way he delved into the forms of clay. It will be interesting to see what happens to the next generation of young Boyds. We cannot say whether they will paint, model, or carve. We have no idea what style they may make their own, except that if they choose the visual arts, their work will be distinctive, and different. Joanna Mendelssohn Associate Professor College of Fine Arts University of New South Wales For transparencies, interviews or any further information, please contact Nadine Wagner on tel: (02) 9360 6069 or email: [email protected] WAGNER ART GALLERY 39 GURNER STREET PADDINGTON NSW 2021 T 02 9360 6069 F 02 9361 5492 E [email protected] W www.wagnerartgallery.com.au Gallery Hours: Mon-Sat 10.30am – 6:00pm Sun 1:00 – 6:00pm .