Exhibition themes Ceramics

Ceramics

Boyd’s interest and enjoyment in working in a very direct way with materials is especially notable in his ceramics through his recurrent use of clays and glazes. He acknowledged the influence of his parents, Merric and Doris, on his ways of working in two extraordinary series of ceramic tile paintings: the first made in Melbourne, 1949–53, and the second in London, 1962–64, after moving there in 1959. From 1952 through to 1956, he also produced engaging figurative sculptural ceramics.

Merric Boyd, Arthur’s father, is now widely recognised as one of the first professional studio potters in Australia. His inventive approach to working with clays and glazes and his use of metamorphic imagery (when one form changes or morphs into another) was a great source of inspiration to Arthur.

He shared his father’s delight in the marvellous element of surprise in the colours and glazes purged and transformed by fire, seen in the varied, vivid ceramic tiles on display. Here recurring subjects from biblical and mythological stories and his imagination include: love and despair, desire and guilt, cruelty and compassion, life and death, tackled with profundity and a sense of adventure.

In the drawings, Boyd fondly recalls his father at work, as well as a devastating fire in the back garden, that destroyed the first kiln along with many works and recipes for glazes. This had a terrible effect on Merric’s fragile state of health. Throughout his life Arthur recalled his father’s suffering with epilepsy, along with his great commitment to his work and spirit of resilience.