David Boyd (1924-2011)

David Boyd descended from a family of artists: his grandparents were landscape painters, his brother is a sculptor, and his daughters make mixed-media paintings. Boyd began his career making ceramics in collaboration with his wife, and in the 1950s, he transitioned to painting as his primary medium, honing an expressive figurative style whereby vibrant colors and idyllic settings belied more serious themes. His work was driven by strong political opinions and a sense of social justice regarding issues in Australia, and often featured indigenous Australians as subjects, as in his series “The Tasmanians” (1959), based on the political and social marginalization faced by the Aborigines. Boyd is considered by critics to have been a central part of a generation of Australian artists that significantly drew attention to the plight of Aboriginal populations through their work.