Arthur Boyd Shoalhaven River paintings return home to Bundanon after 40 years at Melbourne State Theatre

Australian artist Anna Glynn thought she was being pranked 30 years ago when she received an out-of-the-blue phone call from one of Australia’s greatest painters, Arthur Boyd.

“But it [really] was Arthur on the line, which was quite delightful,” Ms Glynn said.

“He heard I was very organised, and he needed someone to come and assist him prepare for an exhibition.”

Ms Glynn spent the following year helping Boyd at his home, Bundanon, situated in the bush just outside of Nowra, on the lands of the Dharawal and Dhurga-speaking people on the New South Wales South Coast.

She said the pair, often accompanied by Arthur’s wife Yvonne, would cart large canvases from the studio to the banks of the Shoalhaven River.

“Arthur would go into his zone, and I loved the sound effects because he worked with his bare hands,” she said.

Boyd’s legacy at Bundanon

Boyd was enchanted by the Shoalhaven landscape and spent the latter part of his life painting the large-scale terrain that lined the river.

However, he was concerned that the area would one day boom with tourists and feared for the destruction of the natural environment.

So, Arthur and his wife Yvonne bought the parcels of land at Bundanon during the 1970s.

Bundanon Art Museum chief executive officer, Rachel Kent, said as soon as the couple purchased the land, they started to think about how they could give it back.

The Federal Government formally accepted the property as a gift to the Australian people in 1993 and it has been enjoyed by the public, and artists, ever since.

“It celebrates all of the art forms, but it also provides educational opportunity for young people.

“And importantly it’s for the appreciation of landscape and the natural world.”

Mr Boyd was named Australian of the Year in 1995 and is considered one of the most important post-war artists of the last century.

Paintings come home after 40 years

In the mid-1980s, Boyd created a renowned series of 14 landscape paintings of the Shoalhaven River, depicting the passing of time from dawn to midnight.

Boyd captured the shifts of colour and light at various times of the day and the waterline of the river.

For the first time since their commission by the Arts Centre Melbourne in 1984, the suite of works has returned to the place it was created, Bundanon.

It is the first time the panoramic works have been seen outside of the arts centre’s state theatre foyer.

Ms Kent said it was a “momentous” occasion to have the works back in the environment they were painted in.

“It’s really important because when you see them in the [Melbourne] Art Centre, it’s a theatre environment,” she said.

On Wilder Times

The art museum’s Wilder Times exhibition invokes the vision Arthur and Yvonne Boyd had for Bundanon by allowing the audience to consider how wilderness has changed over time.

Head of curatorial and learning at Bundanon, Sophie O’Brien, said 1984 was a pivotal year for the artist.

She said the series highlighted his awe of the environment and commitment to preserving it.

“He was aware [of] the broader conversations on country, landscape and engagement with place,” Ms O’Brien said.

“It was a time when a lot of people were thinking about national identity, there were Commonwealth and Olympic games, and there was the Bicentennial coming up.”

Ms O’Brien said the Wilder Times exhibition also showcased how other artists from 1984 made sense of the “socially, culturally and politically dynamic time” in Australia.

The Arts Centre Melbourne said its collections team would consider what happens next for Boyd’s collection after the exhibition wraps up on October 13.

The paintings will likely remain at Bundanon until upgrades to the arts centre in Melbourne are complete.