Important Australian + International Fine Art - 16 April 2008 - 17 April 2008 | Melbourne
oil on canvas
122.0 x 91.5 cm
Lot Details
Description
Arthur Boyd
oil on canvas
122.0 x 91.5 cm
signed lower right: Arthur Boyd
Savill Galleries, Melbourne (label attached verso)
Bensons Collection, Melbourne
Deutscher~Menzies, Sydney, 16 – 17 June 2004, lot 16
Private collection, Sydney
Australian Art, McCubbin to Whiteley, Bundoora Homestead Federation Centre for the Arts, Melbourne, 11 April – 1 June 2003
'I had been in England during the Great Flood of 1974. When I was visiting Bundanon some time later I heard the story of the devastation that the river had caused. It ravaged the landscape and the stock. The enormous Santa Gertrudis bull at Bundanon had been a victim.
The rose symbolises imposition and the cultural arrogance of the English as they tried to make 'a little England' in Australia. I was also trying to show the fragility of transporting this culture into such a harsh environment. The rose and the carcass are contrasting symbols.'1
1. Boyd cited in McGrath, S., The Artist and the River, Bay Books, Sydney, 1982, p. 262