Boyle Family

The Boyle Family - Mark Boyle (1934-2005), Joan Hills (b.1931), Sebastian Boyle (b.1962), Georgina Boyle (b.1963).

Elemental Study for the Barra Site, World Series, 1993.

Mixed media resin, fiberglass on wood frame support.

Provenance : The artist, purchased directly from the artist by the previous owner.

The Boyle family have for decades pushed the boundaries of British art, their work is a journey from conception to completion involving the wider place and the focused detail. For the viewer initially it is the detail that intrigues, that alone is reward but the ideas of nature, inner city and randomness add another dimension.  The Boyle family have never revealed the secret of how they render their works with such realistic detail, Mark Boyle said that this would detract from the subject of the work. The work also shifts the angle of vision from the horizontal to vertical, so we are viewing subjects from a perspective that we would not normally observe them.

After meeting in 1957, Mark and Joan started making pictures from assemblages of found objects in 1961. By 1965 they had created their first resin works from areas around West London, the Shepherds Bush Series.  In 1966 they did their first sand works at Camber Sands in West Sussex and returned to the beach at Camber Sands to create their Tidal Series in 1969. 

The World Series of which this is an example, is their most important work, the project continues today. In 1968 at a party in London, guests were invited to throw darts at huge world map. Where the darts struck would be where each world project would take place. It was seen as a lifetime project and the series took them all to all parts of the globe. One dart hit the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, though it wasn't until 1992-3, Barra was completed as part of the World Series. A documentary film was made of the work and the harsh conditions they had to endure in Barra by Georgina Boyle for BBC Scotland.

This is a beautiful and sublime example of their work, showing subtle shades of contour and sand colour with worm casts and flecks of shell.

The Boyle Family have works in over fifty museums around the world and had a retrospective of their work at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 2003.

See the Boyle Family website for more information.