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Arthur BoydBrides

When
29 November 2014 – 9 March 2015
Location
Heide Galleries
Admission

Free with Museum Pass

Free entry

Curator/s
Kendrah Morgan

Arthur Boyd’s series Love, Marriage and Death of a Half Caste, more commonly known as the Brides, was painted between 1957 and 1960 after Boyd travelled to Central Australia. It represents a defining achievement in both the artist’s career and in Australian art of the twentieth century. A milestone in the advancement of local modernism and its humanist themes, the series offers a critique of Australia’s racial divide in the form of an invented love story.

Arthur Boyd
Bride Running Away
1957
oil and tempera on composition board
91.5 x 121.5 cm
Courtesy of Sotheby’s Australia
© Bundanon Trust

Arthur Boyd
Bride Running Away
1957
oil and tempera on composition board
91.5 x 121.5 cm
Courtesy of Sotheby’s Australia
© Bundanon Trust

Arthur Boyd
Half Caste Child
1957
oil on canvas
150 x 177.5 cm
© Bundanon Trust

Arthur Boyd
Half Caste Child
1957
oil on canvas
150 x 177.5 cm
© Bundanon Trust

Arthur Boyd
Persecuted Lovers
1957-58
oil and tempera on board
137.2 x 182.9 cm
A.R. Ragless Bequest Fund 1964
© Bundanon Trust

Arthur Boyd
Persecuted Lovers
1957-58
oil and tempera on board
137.2 x 182.9 cm
A.R. Ragless Bequest Fund 1964
© Bundanon Trust

Arthur Boyd
Bride Watching Soldiers Fight
1958-59
oil on composition board
136.8 x 183.5 cm
Gift of Frank McDonald 1976
© Bundanon Trust

Arthur Boyd
Bride Watching Soldiers Fight
1958-59
oil on composition board
136.8 x 183.5 cm
Gift of Frank McDonald 1976
© Bundanon Trust

The two main protagonists in the allegory—an Aboriginal man and his mixed-race bride—face the trials of a love thwarted by both personal and cultural conflict. They embark on a metaphorical journey that is traced symbolically through complex imagery denoting cyclical growth, decay, and renewal.

The Brides were produced in stages, with the initial sequence exhibited in Melbourne at Australian Galleries in 1958, then again with new additions at Zwemmer Gallery, London, in 1960. The series earned Boyd critical acclaim but was gradually dispersed across public and private collections around the world. In recent years many of the works have returned to Australia, providing an unprecedented opportunity to reunite them. Heide’s exhibition will present the core paintings of the series shown at the initial 1958 and 1960 exhibitions and related drawings and ceramic pieces alongside them.

In the News

Arthur Boyd’s Brides paintings reunited at Melbourne’s Heide Museum
Sasha Grishin, Sydney Morning Herald, January 30 2015

Heide launches biggest exhibition of Arthur Boyd’s Bride paintings ever seen
ABC Radio National, December 3 2014

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