Mark Boyle (1934-2005)

I think it was Hans Locher as a curator who brough the works by Mark Boyle for the first time to the Netherlands. I remember the exhibition was reviewed and it made me go to the Haags Gemeentemuseum. It was the time of music by the Soft Machine and shows with liquid slides to accompany the music. Upstairs in the rooms of the museum were the objects/ earth by Mark Boyle. Boyle made exact replcias of the soli and pavements he found interesting and hang them on the wall like paintings. I thought and think these objects are still fascinating and to my knowledge Boyle is still unique in his approach to art.

These so called earth  studies were highly accurate painted casts that operate somewhere between painting and sculpture – involve the meticulous re-creation of randomly chosen areas of the Earth’s surface using resin and fibreglass (as well as real materials from the site) and have been exhibited internationally. Past shows have included the British Pavilion at the XXXIX Venice Biennale in 1978, Beyond Image – Boyle Family (Hayward Gallery, London) in 1986 and Boyle Family (Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh) – a major retrospective held in 2003.

www.ftn-books.com has several Mark Boyle and Boyle family catalogues available.