Vignette 147: The Judges

In 1967, the University commissioned artist Arthur Boyd AC OBE (1920-1999) to produce artwork.

Boyd painted The Judges, a series of 12 paintings, hoping to encourage the Law to look compassionately on human frailties and on human susceptibility to temptation. The paintings are symbolic and expressionistic; their subjects are judges in caricature, wearing their prominent court wigs, and contorted into strange positions or situations: one judge lies in a dungeon; another stands four-legged like an animal, its back on fire.

The series was first exhibited at the University in 1968 for the Adelaide Festival of Arts and immediately provoked heated debate for its betrayal of judges. The Law School was offended, but years later they retracted their response.

Jointly purchased by the University and the University Union, the set of 12 paintings now reside in the Mitchell Building and are regarded among our most treasured works of  art.

The University of Adelaide: 150 Years of Making History.  Preserving a legacy.  p.195