ARTHUR BOYD

Commissioned by The Grand Hyatt Hotel, Melbourne
Fine Australian Paintings, Sotheby's, Melbourne, 18 November 1996, lot 104
Fine Australian Art, Sotheby's, Sydney, 24 August 2004, lot 60
Private collection; purchased from the above

Foam core backing and in gold painted frame, very fine verticle cracking in top right edge of canvas near frame (approximately 25cm long), horizontal scratch (approximately 4cm) above right leg of woman), fine horizontal line (approximately 16cm long) which probably occurred when paint was wet.
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Surf Carnival No. 2 captures all the tumble of the surf, of bodies tossed, turned and carried by the power of the waves as they crash towards the shore. The vigorous movement in Boyd's painting and its splash of colours has the verve and freedom of an abstract painting. Yet, it is unexpectedly locked into a subject painting by the presence of the bathers, who in turn are caught in the embrace of the turbulence. The brightness of the colours and acrobatic forms likewise express the energetic activity and fun of a carnival of the surf. It creates a marvellous feeling of being part of it, a long way from other images of surf carnivals by such an artist as William Dobell, whose Beach Carnival,1961, engenders participation through looking at, not being part of the scene.¹ Subjects of the beach have a rich history in Australian art, and reach a kind of apotheosis in Charles Meere's Australian Beach Pattern, 1940 (Art Gallery of New South Wales).

Boyd began his Bathers series in 1984, an interest 'revived by Cézanne's Bathers in the London National Gallery.' ² The enormous Bathers Shoalhaven Riverbank and Clouds, 1984-5 (private collection) starkly contrasts the raucous ways of modern man with the timeless beauty of nature. Others were included among Boyd's works when he represented Australia at the 1988 Venice Biennale. An important example is River Bank with Bathers and Mars, 1985(National Gallery of Victoria). Boyd's attack on hedonism is bold and direct, the hedonism that knows nothing beyond self pleasure. In Surf Carnival, however, the mood is jolly, of people enjoying themselves in one of the great Australian pastimes.

Surf Carnival No. 2 is one of five paintings commissioned by The Grand Hyatt Hotel. 

1. Collection of H. R. H. The Duke of Edinburgh
2. Hoff, U., The Art of Arthur Boyd, André Deutsch, London, 1986, p. 81