Judas Receiving a Branch of Thorns
David Boyd
Details
- Artist
- David Boyd
- Title
- Judas Receiving a Branch of Thorns
- Year
- 1971
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Size
- 86 x 76 cm
- Details
This painting is part of The Judas Cycle, a series that overlaps with the Orchard of Heaven series done between 1971-76. David envisaged Judas as both child and man in a wild garden. In the retrospective catalogue David Boyd: The Passionate Journey, Nadine Amadio suggests that the death of Judas has parallels to the Death of Burke in the Explorer Series, where Judas sinks into the earth clutching his branch of thorns. This painting is reproduced in this catalogue and titled The Judas Cycle: Judge Receiving a Branch of Thorns 1971, oil on canvas 86 x 75 cms.
The painting is about punishment but also a romanticisation of the biblical imagery and Christian dogma that was an integral part of his family and childhood. The Judas Cycle series is therefore seen as a collection of visual poems which Boyd attributes to the memory of his parents and childhood at Open Country.
Dr Sheridan Palmer, 2017
copyright Lucinda Boyd
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Provenance
the artist
the Estate of the artist
Exhibited
The Garden in the Wilderness, von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle, 1972
David Boyd Retrospective Exhibition, von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle, 21 November - 13 December 1975
David Boyd The Passionate Journey, May Street Galleries, 2004
David Boyd: his work; his life; his family, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney 17 August - 23 September 2012
Literature
Benko. Nancy, The Art of David Boyd, A Lidmus Publication, Adelaide, 1973, col. illus. p. 171
Amadio, Nadine, The Passionate Journey: David Boyd Retrospective: Images from 1935 to 2004, May Street Galleries, 2004, illus.
David Boyd: his work; his life; his family, Eva Breuer Art Dealer, Sydney 2012, p.236, col. illus. p. 238