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St Francis tapestries in Adelaide

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An exhibition of rarely seen tapestries illustrating the life of Saint Francis of Assisi is on display at the David Roche Foundation House Museum until September 2. 

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An exhibition of rarely seen tapestries illustrating the life of St Francis of Assisi is on display at the David Roche Foundation House Museum until September 2.

Curated by Museum director Robert Reason, with work loaned from the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) collection, the exhibition marks the first time that 12 of Arthur Boyd’s 20 tapestries have been displayed together.

Arthur Boyd: The Life of St Francis exhibition also includes drawings, pastels and lithographs from the series created by Boyd while in London between 1964 and 1965, after his earlier travels to Italy.

Encouraged by fellow artist John Olsen, Boyd had his pastels translated into tapestry cartoons in 1969-70 at the Tapeçarias de Portalegre atelier in Portugal, which then wove the St Francis suite under his direction between late 1970 and 1974.

Each tapestry measuring 2.5 x 3 metres and with a density of 2500 stitches per square metre explores the universal human conditions of love and pain, sacrifice, and compassion through the artist’s highly original interpretation of the legend of the medieval Italian saint.

Mr Reason said Boyd’s tapestry commission was one of Australia’s largest and most ambitious bodies of work.

“It is a remarkable contribution to Australian art and Franciscan history,” he said.

The St Francis suite of lithographs also has a connection to Adelaide, with the well-known gallerist Kym Bonython supporting their production and exhibiting them at his Hungry Horse Art Gallery in Sydney in 1966.

Visitors to the exhibition in Adelaide will have the opportunity to hear from Margaret Pont, the leading authority on Arthur Boyd’s St Francis suite; Leonie Bessant from the Australian Tapestry Workshop; and Jennifer Thompson from Bundanon, the property gifted by Boyd to the nation in 1993.

The House Museum is located on 241 Melbourne Street, North Adelaide.

Further details on these events can be found at www.rochefoundation.com.au

 

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