1924
David Boyd was born in Murrumbeena, Melbourne. Third and youngest son of artists
Merric and Doris Boyd. Studied pottery and painting within the family circle
and also the piano. Entered the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music at 17.
1942
Joined Contempory Art Society of Australia. Conscripted into Australian Army
1944-46
Studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and the National Gallery School
on an ex-serviceman’s grant. First exhibition of paintings with John Yule
at the Rowden White Library, University of Melbourne. In partnership with brother
Guy Boyd founded Martin Boyd pottery in Sydney.
1947
Painting expedition in New Caledonia with author Hugh Atkinson
1948-49
Married Hermia Lloyd-Jones, younger daughter of graphic artist Herman (Jonah)
and Erica Lloyd-Jones. Began pottery career with Hermia. First exhibition of
pottery in Sydney.
1950-55
Established pottery studios in London and in the South of France joined for
a time by ceramist and painter Stanislaw Halpern. Travelled widely throughout
Spain. Returned to Australia.
1956
David and Hermia Boyd became widely known as leading Australian potters. Introduced
new techniques in glazing and the use of the potters wheel in shaping sculptural
figures. Greatly influenced local potters in particular Tom Sanders and John
Perceval. Major exhibition of ceramic tiles and sculptures at the Museum of
Modern Art, Melbourne.
1957-58
Commenced painting The Explorer series, exhibited at The Australian Galleries,
Melbourne and Clune Galleries, Sydney.
1959
Started a series of paintings based upon the extinction of the full blood Tasmanian
aboriginal in the nineteenth century. Took part in issuing the Antipodean
manifesto with Blackman, Arthur Boyd, Brack, Dickerson, Perceval, Pugh and B.Smith
defending the figurative image in contemporary painting in a joint exhibition
in Melbourne. Exhibited The Explorers and The Tasmanians in Adelaide.
1960
Commenced a series of paintings on the theme of Law and Justice, The Trial series.
Elected President of the Contemporary Art Society (Victorian Branch) , Councillor
of the Museum of Modern Art of Australia.
1961
First prize Italian Art Scholarship for Australia and Chairman of the Federal
Council of the Contemporary Art Society of Australia.
1962
Lived in Rome, continuing The Trial series, before returning to England. Settled
in London.
1963
First one-man exhibitions in London and Paris of The Trial paintings .
1964
Revisited Spain and painted Church and State series based upon this visit.
1965
One-man exhibitions in London and in Australia Church and State.
1966
Discovered method of using candle flame to create images and named the technique
Sfumato, a word used by Leonardo da Vinci to describe graduations
of a misty tone in painting (although there is no evidence that Leonardo used
a candle flame to achieve this effect).
1967-69
Exhibited Sfumato paintings in London and in Australia, including Newcastle,
New South Wales. Revisited Australia. Exhibited late Sfumato and Limbo paintings
in Adelaide, South Australia, Sydney series. War Games in Sydney, NSW. Visited
Boyd Town at Twofold Bay, south coast of New South Wales. Commenced a series
of paintings, The Wanderer, inspired by the life of Benjamin Boyd, an Australian
adventurer of the 1840s. Retrospective exhibition of loaned works from various
collections in Australia and Britain at Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery,
London, Edinburgh and Sheffield.
1970
Settled in south of France. First exhibition of Wanderer series at Adelaide
Festival of Arts, South Australia. Next at von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle.
1971
Exhibited the Wanderer series in separate sections in three concurrent London
exhibitions. Started a series based on mythological Orchard of Heaven, first
exhibitied in Brisbane, Queensland. Visited Australia.
1972
Developed theme of The Orchard and exhibited series entitled The Garden in the
Wilderness in Newcastle, New South Wales. Commenced the Exiles series which
formed the latest inclusion in the exhibition. Returned to France. Developed
the theme, The Exiles.
1973
Exhibited The Exiles series in London and in Melbourne, Victoria.
1974
Retrospective Exhibition at Skinner Galleries, Perth, Festival of Arts.
1975
Returned to Australia. Retrospective Exhibition at von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle,
NSW
1976
Retrospective Exhibition at Bonython Gallery, Sydney.
1977
Commenced a series The Private View.
1978
Developed theme of The Private View.
1979-82
Major Retrospective Exhibition, Albert Hall, Canberra. painted a series of works
entitled The Day of the Picnic.
1983
Retrospecitive "Exhibition 1957-82, a series of seven exhibitions, Wagner Art
Gallery, Sydney.
1985
Exhibition four Seasons, Wagner Art Gallery, Sydney.
1986
Exhibition A Judge in the Landscape series, Hong Kong: Wagner Art Gallery, Sydney;
von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle.
1987
Exhibition Requiem for the Birth of a Nation, Wagner Art Gallery, Sydney.
1988
Exhibition Antipodean Second Chapter, Lauraine Diggins fine Arts, Melbourne;
Lanyon Gallery, Canberra.
1989
S.H. Ervin Gallery. Sydney, Antipodean Second Chapter.
1990
Dedicated to Merric and Doris Boyd, Wagner Art Gallery, Sydney.
1991-92
The Clown in the Tree series.
1992
Survey Retrospective Exhibitions Wagner Gallery Sydney, Caulfield Art Complex
Melbourne, Macquarie University Sydney, Beaver Galleries Sydney Canberra.
1993-94
Metaphors of Trial series- von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle New South Wales.
1995
The Legend of Europa and the Cockatoos, Eva Breuer Art Dealer, Sydney,NSW
1996
Europa in Australia von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle, NSW.
1996-97
Driftwood and the Hierarchy series von Bertouch Galleries; Wagner Gallery,Sydney
1998 Music and the Angels, Galeria Aniela, Kangaroo Valley NSW
1999
Survey Retrospective, von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle, NSW.
2001
Reconciliation, Eva Breuer Art Dealer, Sydney, NSW.
Selected Bibliography
Bonython, K. Modern Australian painting and Sculpture, Griffin Press, Adelaide, 1960.
Bonython, K. Modern Australian Painting 1960-1970, with introduction by Ross K. Luck, Rigby Limited, Adelaide, 1970.
Boyd, Martin. Day of my Delight, Lansdowne Press Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 1965.
Burr, James and Williams, Sheldon, Sfumato Paintings and Drawings of David Boyd.
(monograph). Ritchie Dickson Limited, London, 1967.
Finlay, D.J. Modern Australian Painting, Beaverbrook Newspapers Limited, London, 1963
Hood, K, Pottery, Longmans, Melbourne, 1961.
Luck, Ross K, The Australian Painters , 1964-66. The Mertz Collection, Griffin Press, Adelaide, 1966.
Luck, Ross K, Modern Australian Painting , Sun Books, Melbourne, 1969.
Parr, Lenton, Sculpture, Longmons, Melbourne, 1961.
Pringle, J.D., Australian Painting Today, Thames & Hudson, London, 1963.
Smith, Bernard, Australian Painting 1788-1960, and revised edition 1788-1970, Oxford University Press, 1962.
Smith , Bernard , Australian PaintingToday, University of Queensland Press, 1962.
The Oxford Companion to Art, Edited by Harold Osborne, Oxford University Press 1970.
Benko, Nancy, The Art of David Boyd (monograph), Hyde Park Press, Adelaide, 1973 with Forward by Judith Wright.
Craig, Edward D, Australian Art Auction Records 1973-75, Ure Smith, Sydney 1975.
Vader, John, The Pottery and Ceramics of David and Hermia Boyd, Mathews/Hutchinson, Sydney, 1977.
Benezit, E, Dictionaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Librairie Grand Paris, 1976.
Smith, Bernard, Catalogue, David Boyd Retrospective Exhibition, Commonwealth Institute, London 1969.
Marginson, Ray, Catalogue of Melbourne University Art Collection 1971.
The Antipodean Manifesto, catalogue of Antipodean Exhibition, Melbourne, 1959.
Recent Australian Painting, Whitechapel Gallery, 1961.
Commonwealth Art Today, Commonwealth Institute, London, 1962,
Craig, Edward D, Australian Art Auction Records 1976-1978 Rigby 1979.
Scarlett, Ken, Australian Sculptors Nelson 1980.
Germaine, Max, Artists and Galleries of Australia and New Zealand, Landsdown 1979, 1984.
Craig, Edward D, Australian Art Auction Records Currawong Press, New South Wales 1982.
Craig Edward D, Australian Art Auction Records Australian Art Sales 1987-1989.
Gavin Fry and Anne Gray, Masterpieces of the Australian War Memorial Rigby 1982.
Dolan, David, Charles Bannon: Australian Printmaker: An Aspect of Australian art 1968-1982, Angus and Robertson.
Smith, Bernard The Critic as Advocate Oxford 1989.
Dbrez Patricia and Peter Herbst The Art of the Boyds, Bay Books New South Wales 1991.
Craig Edward D, Australian Art Auctions records 1989-1991 Vol 7 Australian Art Sales, NSW, 1991.
Merric Boyd Studio Potter 1888-1959 Victoria, Hammond, National Gallery of Victory, Melbourne 1990.
Anne von Bertouch, What Was It..., Hunnifords Lane Press Newcastle 1989-90.
Monash Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Australia, Edited by John Arnold and Dierdre Morris. Reed Reference Publishing, 1994.
The University of Adelaide Art Collections, Paula Furby and Betty Snowden, University of Adelaide, S.A. 1995.
The Encyclopedia of Australian Art Alan and Susan McCulloch, Allen and Unwin.
Art and Law alternative Law Journal, volume 20 Number 2 April 1995, Monach University, Victoria.
From vision to Sesquicentenariy , The University of Sydney, 1999.
Nadine Amadio,Introduction to catalogue :Reconciliation , Eva Bruer Art Dealer,Sydney, 2001
Appointments and Awards
1960. President of the Contemporary Art Society.(Victorian Branch.)
Councillor of the Museum of Modern Art of Australia.
1961: First Prize Italian Art Scholarship for Australian Chairman of the Federal Council of the Contemporary Art Society of Australia.
1993-96: Artist in residence School of Law, Macquarie University of N.S.W.
1998: MEMBRO ALBO DORO DEL SENATO ACCADEMICO - International Accadamy of Modern Art, Rome, Italy.
Public Collections
Paintings
Australian War Memorial, Canberra; Queensland University, Brisbane; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Ballarat Art Gallery, Ballarat, Victoria; Sydney University (Law Faculty), Sydney; Harold Mertz Collection of Australian Paintings, United States of America ; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Lincolnshire and South Humberside Arts, Usher Gallery, Lincloln, England, Fine Arts Department, University of Melbourne; National gallery, Canberra; Adelaide Art Teachers College, Adelaide, SA; Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Law School, University of Melbourne; Newcastle Region Art Gallery; New South Wales; University of New South Wales; Sydney University Power Collection; Bendigo Art Gallery; Graylands College, Perth, Western Australia; National Gallery of Victoria; The University of Adelaide, South Australia; Macquarie University, Sydney, New South wales; Bundanon Trust, Nowra, New South Wales; Macquarie University, New South Wales.
Drawings.
Art Gallery of New South Wales, ink with oil wash, The Dance, Trial series.
Ceramic Sculpture
National Gallery of Victoria, Adam and Eve.
Art Gallery Of Western Australia, St Francis and
the Birds.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Truganini.
The Offering.
Department of External Affairs, Canberra
Museum of Applied Arts and Science, Sydney
The Power House; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Staffordshire Museum, Stoke-on-Trent
Museum of Modern Art of Australia, Melbourne
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
University of Western Australia, Perth
University of Queensland, Brisbane