Boyd, Arthur

▪ 2000

      Australian painter (b. July 24, 1920, Murrumbeena, Vic., Australia—d. April 24, 1999, Melbourne, Australia), contemplated natural settings as well as the depths of humanity in his highly acclaimed art. He was born into a family of artists and left school at the age of 14 to devote himself to painting. Although one of his antiwar paintings was confiscated in 1942, he continued to serve in World War II with the Australian Army Service Corps' cartographic unit. In 1955 he completed a sculpture for the Olympic swimming pool in Melbourne, and from 1957 to 1959, influenced by scenes of poverty in the Australian outback, he produced his celebrated Bride series. The book Nebuchadnezzar, with text by T.S.R. Boase (1972), reproduced the series that Boyd had crafted as a protest against the Vietnam War. He illustrated the poetry collections Jonah (1973) and The Lady and the Unicorn (1975) by Peter Porter, and in the works Narcissus, Mars, and The Magic Flute he extended the themes of hedonism, violence, and betrayal. His style was compared to that of Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso. Despite his dark subject matter, he considered himself an optimist who had “ghastly struggles with the black god.” In 1993 he and his wife, Yvonne Lennie, donated their 1,000-ha (2,500-ac) estate in Bundanon to the Australian government for use by visiting artists and scientists. Boyd received many honours, including O.B.E. (1970), Officer of the Order of Australia (1979), and Companion of the Order of Australia (1992), and in 1995 the Australia Day Council named him Australian of the Year.

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