Arthur Boyd: An Active Witness

Arthur Boyd: an active witness is a mind-blowing collection of 60 paintings by an iconic and prolific artist, that touch on the dark moments of Australia’s history.

Here’s a unique chance to see the divisive social issues like the Vietnam War and the treatment of Aborigines through the critical but empathetic eyes of one of Australia’s greatest artists, whose works are up there with and appear alongside Sidney Nolan and Charles Blackman.

Threaded throughout the exhibition are enduring human themes borne from Boyd’s social and political conscience – the violence and futility of war, the ethical paradoxes faced by both individuals and humanity, the outsider and the power of individuals and groups as well as the beauty and savagery of nature.

Born in 1920, Boyd witnessed many of the great upheavals of the 20th century, which have influenced his thought-provoking works, which, while infused with the complexity of the situations, never offered a simple solution or a strident message regarding them. Instead he cloaked them in mythological and biblical narratives and set them in a universalized timeless Australian landscape.