Arthur Boyd

Figurative expressionist painter, ceramicist and printmaker Arthur Boyd is considered one of Australia’s most significant modern artists. Boyd was born in 1920, and was taught by his grandfather, prominent painter Arthur Merric Boyd. He served in the Second World War and his experiences influenced the subsequent themes of psychological anguish and suffering in his work. Following the war he became friends with art patrons John and Sunday Reid. Boyd and his family lived and exhibited in London during the 1960s. He returned to Australia in the 1970s and lived at properties in Shoalhaven and Bundanon, areas which he painted until his death in 1999. A major retrospective of his work was held in 1994 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Boyd received an Order of Australia in 1979 and Companion of the Order of Australia in 1992.