David Boyd Biography

David Boyd (b.1924 ) enjoyed a family background of pottery and painting that also nurtured the talents of his elder brothers Arthur and Guy, and sisters Lucy and Mary.

His career as a painter began in 1957 with a series of symbolic paintings on Australian explorers. Controversy surrounded these works and subsequent paintings based on the tragic history of the Tasmanian Aborigines. In 1961 David and his family moved to Rome and then London, where his work first won significant international recognition.

After a brief return to Australia in 1968, some years were spent living and working in the south of France before a permanent move back to Australia in 1975. Since then he has painted several major series of works including the Trial, Wanderer, Exiles, Children Swimming and Explorer series. Often symbolic, his art covers subjects from Australia's legal system to the tragic history of Tasmania's Indigenous peoples. Unflinching and thought-provoking, Boyd's treatment of these subjects has met controversy.

In 1994 David Boyd became artist-in-residence at the School of Law, Macquarie University, Sydney.

His work appears in the collections of most Australian State Galleries, the Australian War Memorial, major universities in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria, and major public and private collections in Britain, Japan and the USA.

Sadly, David passed away in 2011 but has left an incredible legacy in the Australian art world.