King no beard

ne of Australia's leading artists, Daniel Boyd is known for his nuanced interrogation of Eurocentric perspectives on Australian history and the ethics of colonisation. Boyd's works reveal an underlying theme of inheritance and explore the effects of time and memory on the interpretation of objects and images. His recent works investigate scenes and objects with cultural, personal and art-historical significance.

Daniel Boyd’s portraits of colonial ‘heroes’ critique established Australian histories and colonial era painting traditions that downplay the brutality of invasion and early colonisation. At first glance these portraits appear to be tributes to the status and achievements of the subjects, but closer inspection exposes the roles they played in subjugating Aboriginal people and taking part in acts of piracy. The painting King no beard appropriates Allan Ramsay’s 18th century coronation portrait of King George III, the British monarch in power when Australia was colonised. Boyd recasts George as an unscrupulous pirate, replete with an eyepatch, skull-shaped gold finery, and a parrot on his shoulder.