David Boyd is one of the most important the best loved Australian artists view Biography and more David Boyd paintings...

view Biography and more David Boyd paintings...

David Boyd won significant international recognition and was invited in 1969 by the Commonwealth Institute of Art in London to hold  a major retrospective of his paintings.
Represented in:
Australian Art Gallery
Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide)
Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane)
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra)
National Portrait Gallery - Canberra
Tasmanian Museum and National Art Gallery (Hobart)
Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney)
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney)
Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney)
Powerhouse Museum  (Sydney)
Art Bank (Sydney)
National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne)
Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne)
Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth)
Homes a Court Gallery and gallery Collection (Perth)
Australian War Memorial (Canberra)
The University of Queensland, (Brisbane) Australia
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery (Ballarat) Victoria
University of Sydney Faculty of Law (Sydney)
School of Fine Arts, University of Melbourne
Monash University (Melbourne)
University of Melbourne Law School
Newcastle City Council - Region Art Gallery
The University of New South Wales (Sydney) Australia
Bendigo Art Gallery (Bendigo) Victoria
University of Adelaide, South Australia
Macquarie University (Sydney)
Bundanon Trust - The Gift to the Nation of Arthur and Yvonne Boyd
Harold Mertz Collection of Australian Paintings, USA
Lincolnshire and South Humberside Arts,
Usher Gallery, Lincoln, England
Adelaide Art Teachers College, Adelaide, SA
Sydney University Power Collection
Graylands College, Perth, Western Australia
 and many major international galleries and private collections in Australia and overseas

Children Watching Sails

Artist:     DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:      Children Watching Sails
Medium: Oil on board
Image Size: 30.5 x 38.5 cm
Signed: signed lower left: David Boyd

Europa with Sunflowers

Artist:DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title: Europa with Sunflowers & White Cockatoo 1995
Medium: Oil on canvas
Image Size: 57.5 x 76.5cm
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower left

The first original oil on canvas, which evolved the most prominent “Europa” series from the Legend of Europa and the Cockatoos it is an important painting. “Europa Sunflowers and White Cockatoo 1995” is a top-quality masterpiece, sculptural and an almost three dimensional work of art.  .

Children reaching Blue Roses to fulfill the dreams with White

Artist:     DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:     Children reaching Blue Roses to fulfill the dreams with White Cockatoos flying over the River of Gold circa 1996
Medium: Oil on board
Image Size: 45 x 60.5cm
Signed lower right: DAVID BOYD

Chasing around the Sun

Artist:     DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title: Chasing around the Sun from Europa White Cockatoo & Sacred golden plumed Wombat 2002
Medium: Oil on canvas on board
Image Size: 43.5 x 60.5 cm
On reverse: "Chase Around The Sun" Europa & Wombat David Boyd 2002
Signed Lower left: DAVID BOYD 2002

Bathers by a Lagoon

Artist:     DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:      Bathers by a Lagoon circa 1970's
Medium: Oil on canvas
Image Size: 35.5 x 45.5 cm
Signed lower right: David Boyd
inscribed with title verso "BATHERS BY A LAGOON"

Gold Waterfall Children & Cockatoos

Artist:     DAVID BOYD (1924-)   c.1996
Title:      Gold Waterfall Children & Cockatoos
Medium: Oil on canvas
Image Size: 60.5 x 45.5cm
Signed lower right: David Boyd

Europa & the River of Gold

Artist:     DAVID BOYD (1924-)
Title:     Europa & the River of Gold 1995-96
Medium: Oil on board
Image Size: 64 x 54 cm
Signed lower left: David Boyd

SOLD       SOLD       SOLD       SOLD       SOLD        SOLD        SOLD      SOLD        SOLD        SOLD       SOLD        SOLD        SOLD        SOLD        SOLD 

Artist:    DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:      CHILDREN UNDER THE WATTLE TREE
Medium: Oil on board
Image Size: 20.5 x 18.5 cm
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower left
Price:     SOLD
Provenance: private collector, NSW; private art-collector OLD.

Artist:    DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:     Europa with Blue Roses
Medium: Oil on canvas
Image Size:
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower left
Price:    SOLD

 

Artist:     DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:      Europa Series
Medium: Oil on board
Image Size: 122 x 122 cm
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower right
Price:    SOLD

 

Artist:     DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:      Music and the Angels series
Medium: Mixed medium
Image Size:
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower left
Price:    SOLD

 

Artist:    DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:     Music and the Angels series
Medium: Mixed medium
Image Size:
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower right
Price:    SOLD
 

Artist:    DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:     Music and the Angels series
Medium: Mixed medium
Image Size:
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower right
Price:    SOLD

 

Artist:    DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:     Music and the Angels series
Medium: Mixed medium
Image Size:
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower left
Price:    SOLD

 

Artist:    DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:     Music and the Angels series
Medium: Mixed medium
Image Size:
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower left
Price:    SOLD

 

Artist:    DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:     Music and the Angels series
Medium: Mixed medium
Image Size:
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower right
Price:    SOLD

 

Artist:    DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:      Amore MUSICALE - Music and the Angels series
Medium: Mixed medium
Image Size:
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower right
Price:    SOLD

 

Artist:     DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:      Music and the Angels series
Medium: Mixed medium
Image Size:
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower right
Price:    SOLD

 

Artist:     DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:      Music and the Angels series
Medium: Mixed medium
Image Size:
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower right
Price:    SOLD

 

Artist:     DAVID BOYD (1924-)  
Title:      Music and the Angels series
Medium: Mixed medium
Image Size:
Signed: DAVID BOYD Lower right
Price:    SOLD

 

David Boyd "Burke & Wills Bed Down for the Night" fetched $54,000 against the estimate $10,000 - $15,000 to view the entire article click on: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/09/07/1188783493. click on the ABC TV News, best of Boyd.  David Boyd and his brother Arthur Boyd, John Perceval, Charles Blackman and are the most important Australian artists. They along with John Brack, Robert Dickerson and Clifton Pugh signed Antipodean Manifesto in 1959 which determined the shape of Australian contemporary art.  David Boyd dedicated The Legend of Europa and the Cockatoos to his brother, Arthur Boyd, in appreciation of his generosity to the Australian people and his affection for cockatoos.

The Legend of Europa and the Cockatoos is dedicated to my brother,
Arthur Boyd, in appreciation of his generosity to the Australian people and his affection for cockatoos."  -  David Boyd,  1995

"Unlike the various Trial series of paintings which used the visual language to express ideas about a fundamental and disturbing feature of the human condition, The Legend of Europa and the Cockatoos is presented as an entertaining parable. The following background notes may be of interest to people curious about how the series evolved. 

Late in 1994 I was working on some pastels called Music and the Angels.  Because of the wings and the expression on the faces of the angel musicians, the pastels evoked the spirit of the Baroque rather than the exhilarating frenzy of 20th century rock music.  Suddenly in December, following the opening of the new second north south runway and the closure of the main east west at Sydney Airport, the roar of jet aircraft ascending north in increasing frequency above my studio or the whining scream as they approached to land, completely drown the music of the angels. Putting aside their instruments they gazed sadly upwards or out of the picture.

I have kept the angel that first appeared thus.  It is called Angel Listening to the Roar of Jets Over Sydney Australia. The painting belongs to the artists collection, on occasion is included, on loan, to selected exhibitions.  What has does the above got to do with a winged figure chasing cockatoos? An idea can have its genesis in unexpected ways. Since boyhood I had not given a great deal of thought to airplanes, but now with huge jet machines constantly roaring overhead it become impossible to ignore this wonder of modern technology.

To draw or paint pictures of the things would keep their menacing shape in the forefront of the mind  It happened that waiting amongst a stack of pencil drawings from the 1960's was a sketch of a winged figure running through the bush land. The title, Europa Fleeing From a Bushfire, instantly kindled an idea. Why not! I thought. There is a link there. Remote from Jumbo jets but enough to set the imagination on fire. Using the drawings as reference I painted a winged figure running to gain speed, as a pelican does before rising. 

There followed other pictures of a related configuration - such as Europa falling above an inland sea or leaning against the rough back of a wombat while star gazing. At night she dreams that she is frolicking with the cockatoos.  Sometimes her dreams are hounded by a Sacred golden-plumed wombat sitting on her belly or the rarely seen black cockatoo.  Her days are fully occupied chasing sulphur crested white cockatoos. Europa has fashioned herself a pair of solid gold wings but the weight of them prevents her from flying. 

She pursues the cockatoos because she believes their crests are made of the purest gold.  She is convinced that if she captures the birds and enlarges her wings with their crests she will achieve the exhilarating freedom of flight.  Europa is not successful until, from a hiding place in a wattle tree, she preys on the unsuspecting birds, grasping their crests when they fly close. Over a period of the hundred and seven years she gradually enlarges her wings.  Alas, with each new crest she adds to the wings the heaver they become.  The day arrives when she can no longer run or even move for she is crushed beneath the weight of her now mighty gold wings.

COLLECTIONS:
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;
National Gallery of Victoria, Adam and Eve;
Art Gallery Of Western Australia,
St Francis and the Birds;
Bundanon www.bundanon.com.au/  
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Truganini, The Offering www.ngv.vic.gov.au/malp/boyd.html  Pottery:
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.