Arthur Boyd

The son and grandson of artists, Arthur Boyd grew up at Murrumbeena, Melbourne, where creative effort was everything. From age fourteen, he pedaled around the countryside painting, supplies in a cart hitched to his pushbike. Biblical stories read from illustrated bibles by his grandmothers fueled his lifelong fascination with flawed heroes, inspiring paintings, sculptures and ceramics often set within Australian landscapes. His early landscapes gave way to violent expressionistic images in the 1940s. A 1953 Central Australia trip produced his groundbreaking Brides series.

In 1959, Boyd sailed for England, where his international reputation soared. A 1962 Whitechapel Gallery retrospective featuring 175 works marked his decade of triumph. He collaborated with notable British scholars on projects exploring biblical narratives. Returning to Australia in 1971, he discovered the Shoalhaven River, purchasing Bundanon. In 1993, Boyd gifted Bundanon to the Australian Government, believing it should belong to the Australian people forever.