Robert Boynes b. 1942

  • Artist (Photographer),
  • Artist (Printmaker),
  • Artist (Painter)
Painter and printmaker who also studied film, Boynes has worked as an Art lecturer, including a tenure as Head of Painting at the Canberra School of Art. He has been exhibiting since the late 1960s both internationally and in Australia and his work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.

Born in Adelaide in 1942, Robert Boynes specialised in painting and printmaking at the South Australian School of Art from 1962-64 before embarking upon studies in film at Flinders University (1974). He has worked as a lecturer at various tertiary art institutions including Wattle Park Teacher’s College, Adelaide and Maidstone College of Art and Basingstoke Technical College, UK. In 1978 he moved to Canberra where he became Senior Lecturer at the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University and was subsequently appointed Head of Painting.

Since his first exhibition at Adelaide’s Bonython Art Gallery in 1966, Boynes has held more than 50 solo exhibitions throughout the world. Particularly notable among his more recent shows are Street Stories , Beaver Galleries, Canberra (2007); Robert Boynes , Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne (2006); True Fictions , Canberra Museum and Art Gallery (2005); a ten-year survey at the Austral Gallery, St Louis in the USA (1999); and Urban Simulations , Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne (1995).

Boynes has also participated in several important group exhibitions, both locally and abroad, including the Arthur Guy Memorial Art Prize , Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria (2005); Interesting Times , Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2005); Tales of the Unexpected , National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2002); Fieldwork: Contemporary Australian Art in the NGV 1968-2002 , National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2002); the Clemenger Art Prize , National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2002); and Sydney Metropolis , Museum of Sydney, Sydney (1999 – 2000).

His work, features in all the major state, regional and university galleries throughout Australia, as well as prominent corporate collections including BHP Billiton, IBM and Westfield. Significantly, he is also widely represented internationally in the prestigious Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Late Harold Mertz Collection, University of Texas, Fort Worth; the Raymond Burr Collection, California; Westpac, New York; and Sears Roebuck, California.

Writers:
Woodbury, Karen
Date written:
2008
Last updated:
2011