Art & Heritage Collections

The University of Adelaide and the Adelaide University Union jointly purchased Arthur Boyd's series of 12 paintings The Judges in 1968 and 1970.

Boyd hoped the series would encourage the Law to look compassionately on human frailties and susceptibility to temptation.

The paintings are symbolic and expressionistic, requiring an imaginative response from the viewer. The works incorporate images of judges in various modes--with lovers, the insane and the disabled. Composite human and animal figures comment on the difficult marriage between what binds us socially and what drives
us emotionally.

The Judges series was first exhibited at the University in 1968 for the Adelaide Festival of Arts and immediately provoked heated debate about the way the judges were portrayed. For many years the works were displayed in the Equinox Room, Union House.
They are now regarded as among the University's most treasured works of art.

A tour of Boyd's The Judges series will be held on Open Day at 4.00pm Sunday 21 August, in the Mitchell Building exhibition space. The tour is free and all are welcome.

Mirna Heruc, Manager, Art & Heritage Collections