Yvonne Boyd b. 1920

Also known as Yvonne Lennie
  • Artist (Painter)
Tags: Supportive wife
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exhibited at
Arthur Boyd: family and friends
Date
1997
Place
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat, VIC
Description

Toured by the Bundanon Trust. This exhibition spanned 60 years of Arthur Boyd’s career – from his first oil painting in 1933, spanning 4 generations of the Boyd family, the 81 works in this exhibition also included work by the friends of Arthur and Yvonne Boyd, Sidney Nolan, Joy Hester, Charles Blackman, Leonard French, Brett Whiteley, John Perceval and John Olsen.

Source: Solo Survey Exhibition Linkage Project, Tasmanian School of Art, UTAS
BFAG annual report; AGNSW Library catalogue

Exhibition Catalogue:
Chaulker, David (ed), Arthur Boyd: family and friends. West Cambewarra, NSW: Bundanon Trust, 1997.
ISBN 064634353X

Type
Exhibition
Tags
Retrospective, Group, Painting

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Date created Dec. 5, 2013, 11:25 p.m.
Date modified Dec. 5, 2013, 11:25 p.m.
Yvonne Boyd, nee Lennie, was the daughter of a banker, who nevertheless developed a finely tuned social conscience. After leaving school she enrolled in classes at the National Gallery School. Here she met the young radicals Joy Hester and Albert Tucker, and also the exotic refugee from Hitler's expansion into Europe, Josl Bergner. Despite her sheltered background, she was acutely aware of political issues and retained a lifelong belief in pacifism and a distaste for capitalism. ¶
Lennie was an outstanding student and won several prizes for her drawing. In 1942 she joined a fellow student, John Perceval, and enrolled in a life drawing class at the Commercial Artists Association. Here she met another student, Arthur Boyd. ¶
They married in 1945, and as she recognised his talent as greater than hers she then ceased to see herself as an artist. She became the administrator of her husband's creative output, supporting him in all that he did. She also actively encouraged their three children to take the risky life of an artist over a more secure future. ¶
Her belief in the public good over private benefit meant that she and Arthur Boyd jointly decided to give their large wilderness property, Bundanon, to the nation in 1993. ¶