Arthur Boyd's Nebuchadnezzar series, a hallucinatory and nightmarish exploration of the biblical king's downfall, is now on display in a major new exhibition at Bundanon Art Museum on the New South Wales south coast. Titled Man on Fire: Visions of Nebuchadnezzar, the show runs until 11 October and features almost 50 paintings, pastels, and drawings from the late 1960s to the 1990s. It is the first large-scale presentation of the series since its initial exhibitions in London, Edinburgh, and Adelaide.
A Vision of Horror and Anguish
Inside the gallery, visitors encounter surreal landscapes charged with horror and anguish, depicting a figure wandering a wilderness, tortured by fire, and transformed into a clawed, feathered beast. Boyd began the series while living in London in the late 1960s, drawing on his horror at the Vietnam War and protests involving self-immolation. The myth of Nebuchadnezzar, a conqueror punished by God with seven years of exile and insanity, proved fertile ground, spawning about 100 works.
The exhibition draws from Bundanon's collection, the National Gallery of Australia, and private lenders. The first of three main spaces alone features 20 paintings, including masterpieces nearly two square metres in size. They show Nebuchadnezzar struck by lightning, on fire, eating grass, wild and wailing. The expressionist energy is palpable: sweeping strokes, frantic slashes, flurries of flicking curls, and tight impasto coils, with jewel tones punctuated by bright daubs and gashes.
Narrative and Themes
The works are arranged in a loose narrative, from Nebuchadnezzar arched over gold to images of acceptance and release as he merges with the land. Curator Sophie O'Brien notes the series rivals Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly suite. “They’re about masculinity in terms of its idea of control and power, and what having that taken away from you feels like,” she said. “It’s not a religious painting, it’s a painting of the human condition.” Boyd had great empathy for the figure, creating a complex relationship with masculine power.
Key themes—man and beast, fire, landscape—were long present in Boyd's work, as was biblical narrative from his religious upbringing. An encounter with William Blake's Nebuchadnezzar at the Tate and an invitation from medieval art scholar Tom Boase to illustrate a 1972 book catalyzed the series. On a personal level, Boyd thought of his father Merric, whose violent epileptic fits he witnessed as a child. The paintings document a soul in extremis, with enlarged, inflamed testicles often depicted.
Drawings and New Commission
The third room features drawings that are more humorous, surreal, and sexual. One, Fleeing figure with black hair and squatting lion: Nebuchadnezzar, shows an abstracted nude with long hair on which a teddy bear-like lion hitches a ride. “Arthur loved to test ideas through quick form, by drawing,” O'Brien said, “so his thinking process is very much evident in that room.”
A major new commission by Shaun Gladwell, A Nebuchadnezzar Cycle, is a 67-minute video presented on a massive screen in the central gallery. Gladwell, naked and wild-haired, traverses the countryside in slow motion—clambering down rocks, running through bush, wading into the Shoalhaven River and surf at Shoalhaven Heads bearing a flaming torch, and lighting himself on fire before jumping into a waterhole. The imagery is dreamy and poetic rather than apocalyptic.
Living Art Space
Bundanon is a “living art space” dedicated to fostering artists through residencies, commissions, and exhibitions. “The idea of connecting the collection to living artists is a really important one for us, and it’s something that was very important for Arthur as well,” O'Brien said. Man on Fire: Visions of Nebuchadnezzar is at Bundanon Art Museum in Illaroo until 11 October.
