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Lot 16

Arthur Boyd
(1920-1999)
Moses Striking the Rock, c.1951

Important Australian Art

26 June 2019, 18:00 AEST

Sydney, Woollahra

AU$20,000 - AU$30,000

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Arthur Boyd (1920-1999)

Moses Striking the Rock, c.1951
ceramic painting, tile diptych
43.0 x 76.0cm (16 15/16 x 29 15/16in).

Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Private collection
Deutscher ~ Menzies, Sydney, 4 March 2003, lot 92
Private collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED
possibly, Ceramic Paintings by Arthur Boyd, Peter Bray Galleries, Melbourne, 26 August - 5 September 1952, cat. 30
possibly, Ceramic Paintings by Arthur Boyd, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 15 - 27 October 1952, cat. 31

LITERATURE
possibly, Franz Philipp, Arthur Boyd, Thames & Hudson, London, 1967, p. 250, cat. 6.24

RELATED WORK
Moses Striking the Stone, 1951-52, 57.0 x 57.0cm, ceramic, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

'Arthur Boyd's transition from functional ceramics to ceramic paintings was made via a kitchen dresser which he decided to decorate in commercial tiles (used in the pottery by 1949), to emulate the brilliant glazes of 'a marvellous piece of Majolica ware'. Finding that he did not like the tile surface he devised a means of making his own, and then progressed to making tiles as works of art in their own right, completing approximately 100 ceramic paintings over the next four years. These works arguably remained the focus of Boyd's most intense energy until the commencement of the Bride paintings in 1956; a series which owes much to the compositional devices of the ceramic paintings.

Boyd did not view landscape as an appropriate subject for the tiles, which are virtually all figure studies. Although the artist has claimed no particular commitment to religious faith, he returned in the ceramics to incidents from biblical and mythological sources. Many appear to have been conceived as 'parables' on human good and corruptibility, and
suffering through weakness, yet as Arnold Shore pointed out, Boyd's narratives are 'hardly reeking with reverence'. The works bear the imprint of Rembrandt, perhaps the most humane and psychologically penetrating interpreter of the Bible, and at their centre is a code of morality wider than religious prescription.'

Deborah Edwards in Barry Pearce, Arthur Boyd Retrospective, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1993, p. 171

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