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Lot Essay
In 1984 Arthur and Yvonne Boyd left London to return to Australia and, more specifically, to their property Bundanon, which lies midway between Sydney and Canberra, on the Shoalhaven River near Nowra on the New South Wales south coast. However Boyd's joy at re-discovering the Australian landscape was tempered with a distressing awareness of the careless treatment of the natural environment by reckless and hedonistic visitors. Boyd was a practical environmentalist who, together with Sidney Nolan, had fought to stop sand-dredging near Riversdale on the Shoalhaven in 1981. The artist is recorded as saying: "I think Australians have been apt to believe that because this was such a vast land, they couldn't make a mark on it. But a mark has been made and if it continues at this rate, it will soon be too late..." (Arthur Boyd, cited in J McKenzie, Arthur Boyd Art & Life, London, 2000, p.169). Thus while the subject matter of Boyd's Bather series followed a long established western art historical tradition, Boyd's rendering of this theme was imbued with both personal and contemporary environmental concerns, as Hoff noted in the following extract:
"Boyd's interest in bathers, which had not occupied him since the early fifties was revived by Cézanne's Bathers in the London, National Gallery. The idyllic and secluded beach, far from the city, which Conder and Streeton had made popular, is replaced by the beach in the technological age. Cars and speedboats, raucous cries of a hedonistic mob break the calm of nature. What Boyd owes to Cézanne is the considered build-up of the figures into a frieze composition. The stunning effect of the huge painting rests on the contrast between hot tints, ugly masks and monstrous forms of a crowd and the beauty of the natural world. Above the garish human turmoil rises the impressive, timeless riverbank. Luminous cumulus clouds scud across the deep blue sky. Never before in Boyd's work have nature and man stood in such striking juxtaposition. To quote Elwyn Lynn, "the work is the epitome of the creative continuity of Arthur Boyd's art." (U Hoff, op.cit, p.81)
The omnipresent black dog, who is the only living creature visible wise enough to seek the shade of a beach umbrella), is a recurring motif in Boyd's work and is derived from the dog who appears in a work titled A Mythological Subject, by the 15th century Italian artist, Piero di Cosimo. This painting had a tremendous influence on Boyd when he first saw it hanging in the collection of the National Gallery in London, and the dog was incorporated into many of his later works.
The scale of the work reflects the vast quality of the Australian landscape and sky, which always impressed itself anew upon Boyd after a sojourn abroad. While the application of paint is textural and bright throughout this painting, the treed slopes of Pulpit Rock have an elegance of tone and form that constrasts strongly with the gaudy colours and ungainly shapes and movements of the lobster-like bathers.
"Boyd's interest in bathers, which had not occupied him since the early fifties was revived by Cézanne's Bathers in the London, National Gallery. The idyllic and secluded beach, far from the city, which Conder and Streeton had made popular, is replaced by the beach in the technological age. Cars and speedboats, raucous cries of a hedonistic mob break the calm of nature. What Boyd owes to Cézanne is the considered build-up of the figures into a frieze composition. The stunning effect of the huge painting rests on the contrast between hot tints, ugly masks and monstrous forms of a crowd and the beauty of the natural world. Above the garish human turmoil rises the impressive, timeless riverbank. Luminous cumulus clouds scud across the deep blue sky. Never before in Boyd's work have nature and man stood in such striking juxtaposition. To quote Elwyn Lynn, "the work is the epitome of the creative continuity of Arthur Boyd's art." (U Hoff, op.cit, p.81)
The omnipresent black dog, who is the only living creature visible wise enough to seek the shade of a beach umbrella), is a recurring motif in Boyd's work and is derived from the dog who appears in a work titled A Mythological Subject, by the 15th century Italian artist, Piero di Cosimo. This painting had a tremendous influence on Boyd when he first saw it hanging in the collection of the National Gallery in London, and the dog was incorporated into many of his later works.
The scale of the work reflects the vast quality of the Australian landscape and sky, which always impressed itself anew upon Boyd after a sojourn abroad. While the application of paint is textural and bright throughout this painting, the treed slopes of Pulpit Rock have an elegance of tone and form that constrasts strongly with the gaudy colours and ungainly shapes and movements of the lobster-like bathers.