Robert Boynes, Those Lifeless things

ROBERT BOYNES (Australian b. 1942) Those Lifeless Things 1986 180cm x 240cm Acquired  April 1996 #Inventory/Catalogue No.109380

Biography:

Robert Boynes studied at the South Australian School of Art in the early 1960s and began teaching in 1964. He was Head of Painting at the Canberra School of Art from 1978 – 2006 and is now currently Adjunct Associate Professor at the ANU School of Art.

In a career spanning just over four decades, Robert’s art practice has explored and depicted the urban environment, how we experience it and what memories we retain. His creative process is a combination of photography, screen printing and painting, with the final works comprising layered and reformatted images. Roberts is fascinated with the transience of, and the memories embedded in, street art and as such, his works question perception, and the act of seeing.  Interestingly by not revealing all that he records in his initial studies, Roberts in effect, obscures our view yet encourages us to contemplate beyond what we see.

With an extensive exhibition history inclusive of over 50 solo shows across Australia, the UK and USA, Robert is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, Parliament House, Artbank, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and national galleries and museums across Australia.

Artwork:

The work of Robert Boynes invariably evokes the movement, sensations and sounds often found in our urban spaces and streetscapes. His work features fractured images, shards of light and a transient record of what we see and what we recall.

The subject artworks were produced subsequent to the artist’s trip to Los Angeles in the late 1980s. Depicting the urban landscape as one of desolation with an underlying anxiety emanating from the lush painterly surfaces. The city remained a constant source of inspiration for the ensuing years. Related works from the series – “in the skin of the lion” (1988) and “Faith and Empire, Low Tide” (1986), are held in the National Gallery of Victoria.

Bibliography:

Murray Cree, L., & Drury, N., Australian Painting Now, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2000

Haynes, Peter, Robert Boynes: True Fictions, Canberra Museum and Gallery, 2005

View:

More works by Robert Boynes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Geelong Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Victoria,