Graeme Drendel wins $150,000 Doug Moran Portrait Prize 2022

Graeme Drendel with his portrait of fellow portrait painter Lewis Miller

Last week it was announced that Victorian artist Graeme Drendel has won Australia’s richest portrait prize, the $150,000 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize 2022 (DMNPP), for his painting of fellow artist Lewis Miller.

Portrait of Lewis Miller 
by Graeme Drendel 

It's not all about the size - because this is not a large painting - in very stark contrast to the winner in 2017 (see Tim Storrier wins richest portrait prize in the world) when the winning portrait was 2 metres high!

It is however a very fine and sensitive head study of the portrait painter who painted Graeme Drendel for his entry! Now there's a tip for portrait painters needing a sitter!

You can read more about the background to the prize and its history below

Doug Moran Portrait Prize 2022

The prize encourages both excellence and creativity in contemporary Australian portraiture by asking artists to interpret the look and personality of a chosen sitter, either unknown or well known.

This is the web page about the Doug Moran Portrait Prize 2022.  There is no physical exhibition this year.

The Winner

Graeme Drendel's artwork is strongly figurative (and allegorical?) - although not hyperrealistic - and often includes figures in the Australian landscape in his work. I recognised allusions to paintings by famous painters in art history. He works in oil, gouache and watercolour. 

His subjects are figures of solitude and introspection, even when depicted in groups or clusters. Their expression and attire are suggestive of larger obscured narratives, left to the viewer to decipher.

He was born in Victoria in 1953 and, since 1990, he has held thirty solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra. He is represented in many public and private collections throughout Australia.

He was a finalist in the Archibald Prize for Portraiture in 2018.

You can see more of his artwork online on his website and his Instagram account

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Graeme Drendel (@graemedrendel)

The Finalists

There are 30 finalists in the online exhibition of the Finalists' work. Unfortunately there is no narrative from the artist about the rationale behind the portrait. Nor is there any statement of media, support or size - which is a great pity.

I particularly liked the portraits by three women portrait painters

Peter Wegner wins $100,000 Archibald Prize 2021

In its 100th year, Peter Wegner has won the $100,000 Archibald Prize 2021 - for his portrait of fellow painter Guy Warren, who turned 100 in April.

That's a lot of 100s. I guess if people had thought about this in advance, the answer to who would win this prestigious Australian portrait prize was pretty obvious! I'm inclined to pat Peter Wegner on the back for maybe thinking that painting a 100 year old artist who has previously won the Archibald Prize himself (in 1985 with Flugelman with Wingman) would do him no harm in the selection stakes.

Guy Warren with Peter Wegner's award-winning portrait of Guy Warren!

'Peter Wegner’s tender portrait of Guy Warren provides a moving insight into the artist’s state of mind as he navigates his 101st year with characteristic grace and good humour. The fact that Warren was himself an Archibald Prize winner in 1985 adds a wonderful layer of history to the poignancy of the portrait. Who wouldn’t want to look this content at the age of 100?’ Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand

I feel really sorry for Peter Wegner - who was stuck in Melbourne due to a recent lockdown there. So his participation was by video link only.... 

[Note His surname is spelt everywhere but in the subtitles as Wegner!]

This is a video about the announcement of who won and includes commentary from both Peter Wegner and Guy Warren.

  

About Peter Wegner

About the artist - Peter Wegner

The artist must have resident in Australia or New Zealand for the whole of the previous year.

• Age: b.1953 in New Zealand; his career has spanned 40+ years
  
• Nationality: Australian
• Occupation: Artist
• Current home: Melbourne
• Art education:no art training initially. two-year AME Bale residential painting scholarship under Sir William Dargie followed by graduated in fine arts from the Phillip Institute of Technology, from which he later also gained a postgraduate diploma
• Previous appearances in this award: an Archibald Prize finalist in 2020, 2016, 2011, 2004 and 2000 and was also a finalist in the Archibald's ‘Sporting Portrait Prize’ in 2000.
• Website:https://www.peterwegner.com.au/
• Facebook: n/a
• Previous Awards: 
• a four-time finalist in the Dobell Prize for Drawing 
• 2006: awarded the Doug Moran Prize in 2006
• 2012: exhibited in BP Portrait inLondon & Edinburgh
  
• 2013: awarded the $20,000 Gallipoli Art Prize

• Artwork in Collections: His works are held in the collections of

• the Art Gallery of NSW, 
• National Library of Australia, 
• National Portrait Gallery, 
• State Library of Victoria, 
• Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne. 
• and several regional galleries. 

His portrait is part of his Centerarian Project

The Centenarian Project started in 2013 with the first drawing of my Aunty Rita who reached the age of 104. It occurred to me while drawing Rita that there must be other Centenarians who were still living lives with mobility, curiosity and purpose. The nucleus of this series began to form.

Over the last 8 years l have drawn 100 Centenarians within Victoria and New South Wales, about half of whom are living in their own homes with outside support, the other half live in low-care residential accommodation. Each drawing was completed from life in an afternoon or morning with little alteration to that first impression, they are moments captured within a time allowed.

The exploration of ageing and how well we age is central to this project. Maintaining human dignity and independent living are important issues as we age, alongside the question of what it means to have a productive and meaningful life.

references:

• Peter Wegner | Wikipedia - includes images of his work and extensive references to works, awards and collections
• Peter Wegner | National Portrait Gallery
  

About the sitter - Guy Warren

Guy Warren won the 1985 Archibald Prize with a portrait of artist Bert Flugelman, which is included in the Archie 100: A Century of the Archibald Prize exhibition at the Art Gallery. 

 

This is the seventh time he has been an Archibald subject, including a self-portrait in 1996. 

 

Warren started his working life at The Bulletin magazine, which was founded by JF Archibald, whose bequest established the Archibald Prize in 1921. 

The Archibald Prize

The Archibald Prize is awarded to the best portrait of a person ‘distinguished in art, letters, science or politics’ painted by an Australian resident. 

 The Archibald Prize winner is decided by the Art Gallery’s Board of Trustees.  

The Packing Room Prize ($3,000)

For the 30th annual Archibald Packing Room Prize the Prize goes to Kathrin Longhurst for her portrait of the celebrated Australian singer and songwriter Kate Ceberano. 

Packing Room Prize 2021 winner Kathrin Longhurst Kate © the artist

The Packing Room Prize is a cash prize awarded to the best entry as selected by the staff of the Art Gallery of New South Wales who have to handle, receive, unpack and hang the Archibald Prize entries. This year, the prize money has doubled, increasing from $1,500 to $3,000 for the winning artist. 

Their Head 'Packer', Brett Cuthbertson, gets 52% of the vote i.e. he gets to choose the winner whatever!

‘Kathrin’s work fits my criteria. It’s a portrait of a well-known celebrity and it looks like her! I met Kate Ceberano many years ago and Kathrin has really captured her likeness. As soon as I saw the work, I thought “that’s it”. This is also the first time in my tenure as head packer that I have awarded the Packing Room Prize to both a female artist and female sitter. I have been on the lookout, but this is the first time it stood out to me as a clear winner.’ Brett Cuthbertson

The German-born, Sydney-based artist is mostly self-taught and was previously a finalist in the Archibald Prize 2018 and Sulman Prize 2012.  

The ANZ People’s Choice Award ($3,500)

This is voted for by those visiting the exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. The winner will be announced on Later in the summer.

The 100th Archibald Prize Exhibition 2021

For the first time the Archibald Prize Exhibition - at the  Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia - features more women artists than men.  

• For the first time, there is gender parity for artists selected as Archibald finalists: 26 women and 26 men. 
• Female sitters outnumber the men (although that is not a first).
  

(Note to self - maybe start counting the ratio of male to female artists in future exhibitions?)

They had the second highest number of entries. 938 paintings were entered and 52 were elected.

Part of the exhibition

 

Selected artists

[will be added in tomorrow)

You can see all the paintings on this page - click the painting and it takes you to a page about the artist and the sitter.

What you don't get a sense of is their relative size.

Articles about the Archibald Prize 2021

• Archibald prize 2021: Peter Wegner wins $100,000 prize for ‘brilliant’ portrait of Guy Warren at 100 | The Guardian
  

More about past posts about The Archibald Prize

 

• Tony Costa wins $100,000 Archibald Prize 2019
• The Archibald Prize 2017 - Selected Artists and the winner
• "Australian Artist Guy Maestri has won the prestigious $50,000 Archibald Prize with his large portrait of blind Aboriginal singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunipingu" in 15th March 2009 - Who's made a mark this week?
• Second Archibald Prize for Del Kathryn Barton
• Finalists for The Archibald Prize 2013 + The Packing Room Prize
• Tim Storrier wins the $75,000 Archibald Prize 2012
• Finalists for The Archibald Prize 2012 + The Packing Room Prize
• Ben Quilty's portrait of Margaret Olley wins 2011 Archibald Prize

The Wynne Prize 2021 - Selected artists

The Wynne Prize is an annual award ($50,000) for Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture which dates back to 1898.

The prize will be awarded, in the terms of the bequest of the late Richard Wynne of Mount Wilson, to the best landscape painting of Australian scenery in oils or watercolours or to the best example of figure sculpture by Australian artists completed during the 12 months preceding the date fixed by the Trustees for sending in entries.

This year there are far more Aboriginal artists selected for this exhibition - which mean far more examples of the Aboriginal approach to recording the landscape and the stories associated with their homeland. I really enjoy the art so I'm really pleased to see this.

Some of the images of art included in the Wynne Exhibition

I'm also wondering if this is in any way connected with the fact that the Art Gallery of New South Wales website now opens to this statement.....

The Wynne Prize 2021

The Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales invited artists to submit works in competition for the Wynne Prize 2021. In summary, to enter:

• the artwork must have been completed between 30 April 2020 and 30 April 2021
• the artist must be resident in Australia in the year of eligible work.

Eligible artwork

• the artwork must be either
• landscape painting in oils
• landscape painting in watercolour
• a figure sculpture 
• the actual artworks must NOT exceed the size limit of 90,000 square cm (eg 3 × 3 m, 1.5 × 6 m). 
• Sculptures must NOT exceed 3 m in height, 2 square m in area or 1000kg in weight. 
• It can be
• a multi-panel work - as long as the overall dimensions do not exceed the size limit above and/or
  
• a landscape painting in oil, watercolour, acrylic or mixed media. Seascapes and cityscapes are acceptable and/or
  
• a figure sculpture in stone, metal, wood or mixed media. The work may be abstracted, but at the same time clearly derived from a figurative source, human or animal.
• As always it MUST be the artist's original work and must NOT infringe the copyright, moral rights or other rights of any third party.

Plus various MUST dos and don'ts related to delivery, display and hanging.

Prizes

Besides the main prize - Entries in the Wynne Prize competition are also eligible to be considered for:

• The Roberts Family Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Prize – value $10,000 - Also known as the Roberts Family Prize), which may be awarded to an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artist and was first was first awarded in 2018.
• The Trustees’ Watercolour Prize – value $5000
• John & Elizabeth Newnham Pring Memorial Prize – value $1000  - Commonly known as the Pring Prize, which may be awarded to the best watercolour by a woman artist and was established following a bequest by Bessie Pring – herself a watercolourist, who died in 1965 – in honour of her parents. It was first awarded in 1966. 

Every time I wrote about The Wynne Prize, I end up pondering on why there's nothing similar in the UK. 

• Does it just need a Sponsor and a Gallery willing to hold and exhibition and organise the entry? 
• Or is what's missing someone who has the gumption to make it happen - in a way which is beneficial to both the country and landscape artists?

You can also see past winners of the Wynne Prize all the way back to 1898 on the website.

It's an interesting way of tracking styles and fashions in Australian landscape art.

Recent past winners of the Wynne Prize

 

Selected Artists

The website displays their selected artwork and lists the selected artists - with a page for each artwork.

This year there were

• 660 entries
• 39 artworks were selected (i.e. 6%)
  

Among the 39 finalists, there are 20 works by Aboriginal artists – the most on record – and, for the first time, there are more works by women than men. Interestingly Aboriginal artists appear are more likely to get selected in multiple years and a number have won in previous years (see below). I find fascinating that 

• the oldest art also sometimes looks like the most contemporary....
• women aboriginal artists are particularly strong in art competitions
  

You can see the artwork of the 39 finalists on this page and read about who they are below

I started to look through the entries - and a number reminded me of all the climate challenges and natural disasters within the landscape that Australia has been suffering in recent times. It's certainly a theme which came through strongly in a number of artworks.

 The selected artists are: 

Tony Costa wins $100,000 Archibald Prize 2019

For those interested in portraiture it's interesting to compare the 51 portraits selected for the Archibald Prize - a portrait prize worth AUS$100,000 - with those selected for the BP Portrait Award 2019 (see this week's posts: 40th BP Portrait Award (2019) Shortlist and Selected Artists and statistics - BP Portrait Award 2019) worth less than half of the Australian prize.

The Archibald Prize ( $100,000)

Sydney artist Tony Costa’s portrait of artist Lindy Lee has won the 2019 Archibald Prize - worth $100,000 to the winner. 

The prize money equates to roughly US$70,000, £53,000 or €62,000.

About The Archibald Prize

The prize will be awarded, in the terms of the will of the late JF Archibald dated 15 March 1916, to the best portrait ‘preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia during the 12 months preceding the date fixed by the Trustees for sending in the pictures’.

The painting must be an original portrait painted from life, with the subject known to the artist, aware of the artist’s intention and having at least one live sitting with the artist. It may be painted in any medium  (eg oil, acrylic, watercolour, mixed media) but must not be bigger than 90,000 square cm (eg 3 × 3 m, 1.5 × 6 m).

The 51 finalists for the 2019 Prize included 11 self-portraits, 17 portraits of fellow artists and 12 portraits of people in the art world including acting, media and dance.

2019 Archibald Prize winner Tony Costa
Lindy Lee
oil on canvas, 182.5 × 152 cm
© the artist | Photo: AGNSW, Felicity Jenkins

About the artist - Tony Costa

The artist must have resident in Australia or New Zealand for the whole of the previous year.

• Age: 64, born in Sydney in 1955 
• Nationality: Australian
• Occupation: Artist
• Current home: Lives and works in Sydney
• Art education: completed postgraduate studies at the City Art Institute (but attended law school for two years before giving up law for art
• Previous appearances in this award: a finalist in the Archibald Prize in 2015, 2017 and 2018. (Has regularly been selected for various prestigious prizes in Australia)
• Website: https://www.tonycosta.com.au
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tony.costa.50309
• Previous Awards: He has also been represented in the Wynne Prize, the Sulman Prize and the Dobell Prize for Drawing, and won the Paddington Art Prize for landscape painting in 2014. Winner of the Paddington Art Prize for Australian Landscape painting

‘I approach each painting with an empty head, beginning every portrait with charcoal drawings as I collect sensations and information. The challenge for me is to trap the energy of my sitter – the emotional feeling over and above the physical reality. In my portrait of Lindy, I have kept the colour minimal to avoid any visual noise. Ultimately the invention and the unity of the work is what matters most.’ Tony Costa

About the sitter - Lindy Lee

Lindy Lee is a leading contemporary Australian artist and a Zen Buddhist. Her practice explores her Chinese ancestry through the philosophies of Taoism and (Zen) Buddhism.

Lindy Lee, herself an Archibald finalist in 2002, has appeared as a subject in 2006, painted by Bin Xie, and 2012, in a portrait by Kate Beynon.

The reason she was asked to sit

‘I listened to an interview Lindy gave at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and found myself agreeing with many of her ideas. I was attracted to her wisdom, humility, courage, humour and, above all, her deep focus regarding her art practice,’ Tony Costa

Lee said from Shanghai,

“It was very enjoyable to sit for Tony. He just asked me to sit still in meditation for a few hours which is kind of like my favourite sport. I’m thrilled that he’s won. He’s been a very prolific and hardworking artist for many decades and he deserves to win this wonderful prize.” 

The Packing Room Prize ($1,500)

Through the looking glass (portrait of David Wenham) by Tessa MacKayoil on linen, 210 x 330.5 cm

The Packing Room Prize is selected by the staff of the Art Gallery of New South Wales who have to handle, receive, unpack and hang the Archibald Prize entries. Their Head 'Packer', Brett Cuthbertson, gets 52% of the vote

The sitter is an actor called David Wenham and he was painted by Tessa Mackay.  She was born in 1991 and paints large scale hyperrealistic paintings.  This is the first time she's been selected for The Archibald Prize.

‘David delights in strolling through his Sydney neighbourhood, be it the cafe strips for coffee and a yarn with his local barista, or the park where he takes his kids. All the while, he’s happy for passers-by to approach him, demonstrating his curious, generous nature. Sydney had to be part of his portrait, but I wanted to nestle David within a figurative essence of Sydney. David and I searched for a place to create my composition and I chose to situate him in a cafe behind a glass pane, with the streetscape reflecting into the interior. Through this sitting, and looking at my reference images later, I could study David’s face, his hands, arms and shirt, and begin to understand his environment and how he exists in the world. I also desired a challenge with this portrait and painted gradients, organic forms, geometry and vanishing points.’ Tessa MacKay

See also

• Archibald's Packing Room Prize awarded to Tessa MacKay for portrait of David Wenham
• 'The judges love wrinkles': Portrait of David Wenham takes out Packing Room Prize

The ANZ People’s Choice Award ($3,500)

This is voted for by those visiting the exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. The winner will be announced on 14 August 2019

Other reviews

• Tony Costa named winner of 2019 Archibald prize for portrait of Lindy Lee | The Guardian
• Archibald Prize 2019: Tony Costa's pared back portrait claims $100k ... | Daily Telegraph
• 'No safety net': Sydney artist named this year's Archibald winner The Sydney Morning Herald
• The zen of portraiture: Tony Costa wins the 2019 Archibald Prize | The Conversation
• Sydney artist Tony Costa wins 2019 Archibald prize for portrait of Zen Buddhist | ABC News

Tim Storrier wins richest portrait prize in the world

WINNER OF THE DOUG MORAN PORTRAIT PRIZE
The Lunar Savant (portrait of McLean Edwards)
by Tim Storrier
acrylic on linen

The Lunar Savant (portrait of McLean Edwards) by Tim Storrier has just won the First Prize in the Doug Moran Portrait Prize - worth $AUD 150,000 

It's the richest portrait prize in the world. [Note: Just to give some sense of perspective, according to Google, as of today, $AUD 150,000 equates to £89,160 in the UK; €99,910 in Europe  and $117,525 in the USA]

However the BIG story is the backstory about how the portrait came to be entered for the competition in the first place - which makes for fascinating reading. I'm guessing the sentiments expressed will be ones that many artists will have known at some point in their career.

About the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize

Founded in 1988, the aim of the prize over the last 29 years has been to encourage

both excellence and creativity in contemporary Australian portraiture by asking artists to interpret the look and personality of a chosen sitter, either unknown or well known.

The competition is only open to:

• Australian citizens or 
• an artist legally resident in Australia for the 12 months preceding the entries close date

The judges of this year's competition were:

• Daniel Thomas AM - an art historian and curator, who was once 
• chief curator at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 
• then Senior Curator of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Australia and, 
• from 1984 to 1990, Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia
• Wendy Sharpe - an Australian artist who has won an awful lot of awards 
• Greta Moran - a founding Director of the Moran Arts Foundation which she established with her late husband Doug Moran in 1988. 

First Prize

Tim Storrier's portrait of his friend the artist McLean Edwards is to my mind the absolute stand out portrait amongst the finalists - it's head and shoulders above the others - in more ways than one. (notwithstanding the fact the finalists included a self-portrait by McLean Edwards).

Standing almost two metres tall, the portrait is one of the largest in the competition and certainly one of the most beautiful and arresting, depicting a disheveled-looking Edwards in a stark, mystical night landscape with a cigarette dangling loosely from one hand, a bemused look on his ruddy face and one shoe noticeably absent.Doug Moran Art Prize Won by a Portrait Rejected by the Archibald | Jane Albery, Broadsheet Melbourne

Judge Daniel Thomas described the portrait as one that

“went outside his personal mythology and produced an affectionate, teasing, ‘friendship painting’ of a wild fellow artist”.

Interestingly, according to the Sydney Morning Herald

• this is the first time Tim Storrier has entered the Doug Moran Portrait Prize competition. 
• the portrait was "screened out" by the the judges of the Art Gallery of NSW (presumably in relation to the Archibald Prize)

On collecting his prize money Storrier apparently commented as follows

"That picture should have been really called Lazarus, because the judges of the Art Gallery of NSW in their wisdom screened it out; it did not make the cut..... It's interesting isn't it? It's two different institutions with two different value systems at work." Tim Storrier quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald

Storrier was also in the news earlier this year for blasting the choice of winner for The Archibald Prize - see John Olsen and Tim Storrier blast judges of Archibald Prize dailytelegraph.com.au - they accused the judges of picking a "bland" portrait. He reiterated his criticism that the board of the Art Gallery of NSW had been taken over "by a postmodernist cabal" driven by fashion and political caution. in the interview he gave to the Sydney Morning Herald.

That commentary makes more sense now it turns out that even pre-eminent portrait painters can feel very aggrieved about how selections are made for prestigious competitions!

“It’s just amazing how a limping dog can end up winning a race, isn’t it?”Tim Storrier on his Doug Moran win after being rejected for The Archibald

Storrier has very definitely for both street cred and a track record as both a portrait painter and winner of major awards.

• He has won the Sulman Prize twice with 
• 1968: a painting of a motorbike accident in the outback (Suzy 350) when he was 19 years of age
• 1984: a painting called The Burn
• He's a previous winner of The Archibald (Portrait) Prize with his faceless painting of The histrionic wayfarer (after Bosch) (see my previous post Tim Storrier wins the $75,000 Archibald Prize 2012).
• He then went on to win the Packing Room Prize in 2014 for his portrait of 'Sir Les Patterson' one of the messier inventions of John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE - Australian comedian, satirist, artist, and author.

His work is also included in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York and all major Australian art museums.
I just wish he'd have a shot at the BP Portrait Award so I could get to see one of his portraits - as they are always fascinating if not a total conundrum dressed up as a portrait.

You can see more of Storrier's portraits/artworks on his website. This is a video about him.

You can read about McLean edwards perspective on the portrait and the win by his friend in
Head to head — Tim Storrier v McLean Edwards in Australia’s richest art prize

The Finalists

30 portraits made it through to the Finals of the Doug Moran Prize. (I like the fact every finalist wins $AUD 1,000).

• The finalists are a mix of well known artists and emerging artists.
• You can see a selection of them in this Guardian article Doug Moran portrait prize 2017 finalists: from Isla Fisher to Anh Do – in pictures
• There is also a page on the website with the images of a longer list of semi-finalists

This is a very short video about the judging

The Exhibition

The Doug Moran Portrait Prize Exhibition opens tomorrow

• Dates: 19 October to 17 December 2017
• Venue: Juniper Hall, 250 Oxford Street, Paddington in Sydney.
• Hours: Open Thursday to Sunday 10am to 4pm
• Admission: Free

The Juniper Hall venue is a former gin distillery in Paddington and the oldest building in Sydney, which was fully restored in 1988 and bought by the Moran Foundation in 2012 from the National Trust. It's used as an art gallery.

Previous Winners

On this page of the website you can see images of the previous winners and finalists between 2009 and 2016

Reference:

• Tim Storrier wins Doug Moran Portrait Prize with painting of friend McLean Edwards | Sydney Morning Herald - contains interesting comments by Storrier on both how the portrait was painted and repeats his criticisms of the Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Doug Moran Art Prize Won by a Portrait Rejected by the Archibald | Broadsheet Melbourne - excellent interview with Storrier and explanation of the back story to this win
• Doug Moran National Portrait Prize goes to Tim Storrier | Brisbane Times
• Tim Storrier wins Doug Moran prize for portrait of McLean Edwards | The Guardian - completely missed the interesting back story!

The Archibald Prize 2017 - Selected Artists and the winner

I love seeing the portraits for Australia's Archibald Prize - because they're so very different from the ones which get entered for art competitions in the UK.

Is it a hemisphere thing - or a cultural discontinuity about portraiture? Whatever - this post covers

• the winner and the controversy!
• selected artists

The prize (is) awarded, in the terms of the will of the late JF Archibald dated 15 March 1916, to

the best portrait ‘preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia during the 12 months preceding the date fixed by the Trustees for sending in the pictures’.

This year, The 2017 Archibald Prize had

• 822 entries this year 
• 43 portraits selected for the exhibition.  (ie 5% success rate)
• 14 of the 43 finalists are women – a third.
• Of those selected almost half chose artists as sitters - 19 painted artists including a double portrait of an artist couple, James Drinkwater and Lottie Consalvo.

At the end of this post there's a review which compares the Archibald to the BP Portrait Prize - and it's a  recommended read!

Winner of the Archibald Prize 2017

"The Archibald Prize chronicles the changing face of Australia"
Michael Brand, Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Archibald Prize 2017 winner
Agatha Gothe-Snape by Mitch Cairns
© the artist

Mitch Cairns won with his Matisse-styled portrait of his artist-partner, Agatha Gothe-Snape.

• Bio: born 1984, Camden, Australia
• Education: BFA with Honours, National Art School, Sydney (2003-2006)
• Previous Archibald: 2013, 2014 amd 2015 - he was highly commended in 2014 and 2015

Every portrait is usually of a significant Australian and artists painting each other is almost an Archibald tradition . Gothe-Snape is a significant contemporary artist exhibiting widely both in Australia and overseas.  So the couple have achieved a major win - of  prize money and major marketing for both their artistic practices!

Below you can read about the controversy triggered by this choice.

The Winner of the Packing Room Prize 2017 is Peter Smeeth's painting of Lisa Wilkinson AM

Other finalists are listed below. You can see images of the all artwork in the exhibition on the website. These are made much more accessible due to a voiceover of the narrative of each painting. It's a pity we don't see these more on exhibition websites for those whose eyesight finds text difficult.

There seems to be rather less preference given to the eminent Australians this year compared to previous years - but that's just an impression, I've not been counting!

• Tony Albert - Self-portrait (ash on me)
• Jessica Ashton - Self-portrait as a clown
• Kate Beynon - With amulets and their shadows (Self-portrait)
• Andrew Bonneau - Portrait of Ayako Saito
• Boys of Sydney Grammar Edgecliff Preparatory School - Goodbye, Sir! (Portrait of Dr John Vallance)
• Keith Burt - Bare Tarragh (Portrait of Tarragh Cunningham)
• Jon Campbell - Two sunny boys (Peter Oxley and Jeremy Oxley) - I love the fact this is in media which is not conventional

A Holiday at Mentone by Charles Conder

For those not on holiday, during August I'm posting paintings of those taking a break.

I'm starting with Charles Conder's painting of "A Holiday at Mentone" which is one of the best loved of all Australian Impressionist paintings. Its home is the Art Gallery of South Australia

A Holiday at Mentone by Charles Conderoil on canvas, 46.2 cm × 60.8 cm (18.2 in × 23.9 in)
Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide

I first saw this painting earlier this year at the exhibition of Impressionist Paintings by Australian painters at the National Gallery - see my blog post Australia's Impressionists at the National Gallery - review.  I can well understand why it so well liked by Australians.

Some facts about the painting

• this was the first painting by Conder that he painted in Melbourne; 
• the painting was found to have sand embedded in the painting suggesting that this was painted or at the very least started while at the beach
• This painting is one of the first to capture the intensity of Australian light.  The weather is sunny and bright as are the colours; the shadows are also coloured
• Its theme is one associated with life in Australia - it celebrates the light, leisure opportunities and the beach - and consequently is very popular with those who love the be in the sun and go to the beach. Both figures reading on the beach are reading 'The Bulletin' magazine known as 'The bushman's bible' because it celebrated outback life and culture
• the building to the right is a bathing enclosure - used for segregated bathing
• the use of the bridge to bisect the painting is suggested to be reminiscent of the bridge device used in paintings in Japanese art and as used by Whistler. This was also the age when Japanese art had a great influence on painting - see my earlier posts on The influence of Japanese Art and Japanese Art
• the education page highlights the conundrum of the figures in the painting

an image that continues to intrigue generations of viewers - the curious drama in the foreground, involving three people who may or may not be aware of each other, poses several questions: Is the man lying on the sand just sleeping? Will the young woman ever notice that her umbrella has blown away? Will the self-important young man (standing at right) retrieve it and introduce himself?

Some facts about the painter:

• Charles Conder was just 20 when he painted this painting. He was born in 1868 in Tottenham (then in Middlesex, now in the London Borough of Haringey)
• Conder lived in Australia between 1884-90
• he was sent to work for his uncle, a land surveyor for New South Wales, Australia at age 16 however he wanted to draw the landscape rather than survey it
• he became a key figure in the Heidelberg School
• in 1888, he Arthur Streeton, and shared a studio with Tom Roberts, two other key figures of Australian Impressionism
• Conder left Australia in 1890 and moved to Paris where he studied at the Académie Julian
• He spent the rest of his life in England, although he visited France frequently
• he died in Virgina Water in Surrey in 1909 - he was insane

Some facts about the location

• Mentone in the 1880s was a suburb of Melbourne - the railway had not yet reached it and consequently it was quieter than some other locations
• it was one of the favoured sites of painters associated with Australian Impressionism

REFERENCE:

• Charles Conder | Google Art - has a number of his Impressionist paintings
• A Holiday at Mentone | Wikipedia
• A Holiday at Mentone | Art Gallery of Australia
• A Holiday at Mentone | Art Gallery of South Australia - The Learning Federation
• Heidelburg School | Google Art

Another painting by Conder made available by the Google Art Project selection of paintings by Charles Conder is that of Bronte Beach - which is painted on cardboard.

Bronte Beach (1888) by Charles Conder
oil on cardboard, h226 cm x w330
National Gallery of Australia

Australia's Impressionists at the National Gallery - review

Yesterday morning I visited the Australian Impressionists exhibition at the National Gallery in London and I'd certainly recommend a visit to this small but stimulating exhibition. On the basis you can only really give 5 stars to a blockbuster of an exhibition, then I'd give this one 4 stars and would certainly recommend it as an exhibition every serious landscape painter should try and see. Certainly all those who paint plein air should make a pilgrimage!

At the end of this review are links to more reviews if you'd like a wider perspective and other views as to whether it's worth making the trip up to London to see it.

Golden Summer, Eaglemont, 1889 by Arthur Streeton
Oil on canvas, 81.3 × 152.6
© National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Interestingly not all of the painters are Australian by birth -- two were born in England - and not all of the Australian Impressionist paintings are of Australia - some are of France. Of which more below!

However if, like me, you are one of those people who like buying a catalogue for exhibitions you enjoy I wouldn't bother visiting for the next 2-3 weeks or so.  That's because the exhibition catalogue sold out under 9 weeks of it opening - and with another 9 weeks to go before it closes (on 26th March 2017)!  I gather that the catalogue is currently being reprinted but won't be back in stock until at least 20th February.

It's actually a very good catalogue so worth the wait. I trotted across to the art section in Waterstones in Trafalgar Square in the hope they might still have one and was rewarded with a copy! (Along with two more books but that's another story!)

I can only assume "somebody" vastly underestimated how many catalogues would be required for this exhibition!  Which is a great pity as the Gallery won't make back those lost sales over a month or more of visitors and no catalogues!  Not a very smart move from whoever is responsible for the merchandising of this exhibition.

I'd also love to show you how the paintings in this exhibition look so much better than the very same paintings that I saw at the Australia exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts back in 2013 (see my review 'Australia' Exhibition at the Royal Academy - review). I'd love to show the contrast but unfortunately I was not allowed to take any gallery view photographs!

(Quite why Galleries invite people hoping to stimulate a review - and then say you can't take photographs(!!!) I'm really not sure. It's also somewhat annoying as as I found out later that videos of the exhibition and the paintings are already on YouTube!).

Gallery 4: Australian Impressionism
'Australia' at the Royal Academy - 21 September 2013 to 8 December 2013

The RA exhibition was when I saw Arthur Streeton's paintings for the first time 'for real' although I'd known about him and his paintings for quite some time.

In my opinion the paintings look so much better at the National Gallery against very neutral stone coloured walls (rather than the Hex #666666 Grey colour at the RA).  The background in this exhibition is a very Australian outback colour - it's the colour of dust and stone - and hence the paintings somehow manage to look more real. The blue glows even more and the stone colour unites the spaces inbetween the paintings and you very much get that sense of endless landscape which is very prevalent in Australia - it just goes on and on forever. (I've driven through landscapes in Australia similar to these albeit north of Sydney rather than south). 

Anyway - on to my image-heavy review.  You can also see a list of reviews by other people at the end if you're unsure on whether to make the trip to the National Gallery.

The Exhibition

There aren't a lot of paintings in the show - just 41 in total. The exhibition is being held in the Sunley Room which is the exhibition gallery in the centre of the National Gallery usually used for the small/medium sized exhibitions.

I gather this exhibition was triggered by the loan of an Arthur Streeton painting of Blue Pacific - to the National Gallery - one of the first paintings exhibited at the Gallery outside the hitherto normal scope of Western European painters. I know I spotted this last year and was struck by how it positively glowed on the wall of the Impressionist Gallery (I recognised the penetratingly blue blue used by Streeton!)  It's supposed to be painted at Coogee - so I checked and today the area where the people are standing is quite clearly fenced off for their safety!

Blue Pacific, 1890 by Arthur Streeton
Oil on canvas 91.4 × 50.8 cm
Private collection © Courtesy of the owner

The idea behind this exhibition was to have more paintings by Australian Impressionists and I think probably to warm up the walls in winter by having some paintings of sunnier climes on the walls! The exhibition was put together in a very short space of time - in collaboration with Art Gallery of New South Wales.

It has three themes and four painters.  The four major Australian Impressionists (with my comments) in effect the equivalent of Canada's Group of Seven (see my review of Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven - Review)

More Art of Australia - on BBC4 and iPlayer

BBC4 has a series of three programmes about The Art of Australia which are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.  Edmund Capon, the former Director and Chief Curator of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, provides an account of how Australian art has developed over time and made sense of its great beauty, its history and Australian identity. It also reflects a very diverse culture based on the people who have lived there forever and those who migrated to Australia.

Golden Summer (1889) by Arthur Streeton
National Gallery of Australia
Currently on view in 'Australia'

A lot of the art features the landscape of Australia or is based on concepts relating to land.  It includes art from the exhibition 'Australia' at the Royal Academy of Arts (21 September 2013 to 8 December 2013).  Indeed I think it no accident that the series of three programmes are being broadcast while the exhibition is on in London

The images below are currently on view in in the exhibition organised at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, organised in partnership with the National Gallery of Australia.

This is the artwork and the artists featured in Episode 1 - Strangers in a Strange Land which is about how art helped European settlers come to terms with such an unfamiliar land.

Second Archibald Prize for Del Kathryn Barton

Del Kathryn Barton has won the $75,000  Archibald Prize 2013 with her portrait of Australian actor Hugo Weaving.  This is the second time she has won the prize and the fourth time she has been selected for the exhibition.  She also won the 2008 Archibald Prize with a self-portrait with her two children.

hugo by Del Kathryn Barton
watercolour, gouache and acrylic on canvas, 200 x 180 cm

This decision totally reinforces my regard for Australian art competitions!  Here's some of my reasons why

• It's good to see a major prize being won by a woman who has painted a portrait which reflects contemporary painting
• In the UK a portrait such as this might well be dismissed as "merely decorative" or "illustrative" by some judges for whom proper portraits should look as if they could have been produced by past masters - preferably male!  My view is a good portrait is one which  (1) reflects the individual and (2) has an aesthetic appeal at some level or other.
• in the UK a painting which used watercolour and gouache cannot win the UK's premier portrait competition - the BP Portrait Prize.  My personal view is that a review of the acceptable art media for that competition is long overdue
• it sticks to the rules and awards the prize to somebody who has painted a portrait of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’.  Why don't we have a competition like this in the UK? I'd like to see more people creating paintings of distinguished people that don't look like photographs!
• This is only a 'preference' but it takes some nerve to enter a portrait of somebody who doesn't fall in that category.  
• Of course you can always find out what the judges really think of you by painting a pastiche self-portrait as Tim Storrier did last year !

Her portrait reflects Hugo Weaving's personality, his background and her preferred style of working.

‘Hugo Weaving is an Australian cultural treasure, an artist in every sense of the word. For many years I have admired his work both on screen and stage. Initially I had considered a very simple pictorial approach for Hugo, a bearded man in a black suit. But when we sat down to discuss the portrait I was enchanted by the rich content in his stories and felt moved to interpret and assemble a kind of personalised symbology within his portrait. More than anything I hoped to portray a sincere, deep, generous and creative soul.’
Del Kathryn Barton

So far as this painting is concerned - I love the overall effect.  The dense patterning reminiscent of aboriginal art in the background provides interest and stimulates the eye but doesn't overpower. The colour palette is quirky and is obviously a signature style for this artist judging by her artwork (e.g. a recent exhibition). Of course the calligraphic mark-making holds an especial appeal for me.

Del Kathryn Barton was born in Sydney in 1972.  She graduated in 1993 with a degree in Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts of the University of New South Wales. The College later employed her as a lecturer.  Galleries in Sydney have held regular exhibitions of her work in the last 20 years.  Between 2006 and 2011 she was identified every year as one of '50 of Australia's most collectable artists by the magazine Australian Art Collector.

Note: Hugo Weaving is an acclaimed actor in Australia. He is best known internationally for his roles in The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings trilogies. He is also well known in Australia for appearances in smaller Australian films, television series and plays for the Sydney Theatre Company.

Links to my previous posts about the Archibald Prize

• Finalists for The Archibald Prize 2013 + The Packing Room Prize
• Tim Storrier wins the $75,000 Archibald Prize 2012 03 Apr 2012
• Finalists for The Archibald Prize 2012 + The ... 20 Mar 2012
• Ben Quilty's portrait of Margaret Olley wins 2011 Archibald Prize 19 Apr 2011
• Who's made a mark this week? 15 Mar 2009

10 things about art this week #1

1. A change for my Sunday posts

"10 things about art" is a bit of an experiment - to see if I can write a briefer post about art on alternate Sundays.  The idea is to write about fewer things but maybe say a bit more.  It's looking pretty lengthy at the moment but I'm enjoying focusing in more depth on fewer subjects.

There are no posts from art blogs identified this week - see item 2 as to why!

Thanks for all your comments which have been reaching me via a number of channels.  I've loved everything you said about what you liked the best.

2. It's going to be more difficult to follow Art Blogs via a Feed Reader from July (or is it?)

Google announced this week that it is closing down Google Reader - which is something of a concern for me as a very large number of my subscribers use Google Reader to follow this blog.

You can still SUBSCRIBE to Making a Mark by Email.

Here's the facts

• Google Reader will be retired on 1st July 2013
• You can export existing data and subscriptions via Google Takeout
• a petition has been started - and has collected 10,000 signatures - to keep Google Reader.  To say that a lot of people are furious is probably an understatement!
• there are LOTS of articles examining the alternatives eg Lifehacker
• plus others are looking at the implications for life without Google Reader and how it alters the landscape of social media - see, for example What the Death of Google Reader Means for Your Feeds by Jonathan Bailey (Plagiarism Today)

I'm currently experimenting with alternative feedreaders for 

• broadcasting the publication of a post on my blog(s)
• reading art blogs without having to visit each blog individually

I'm very much biased towards webware accessible via different platforms in different places.

• I'm continuing to manually post blog posts to my Facebook page - with a brief comment.  (Don't use Networked Blogs for automated posting - Facebook will bury the post)
• I tried Bloglines (which is what I originally used) - however it's a complete waste of time.  I do NOT recommend switching to Bloglines
• I'm currently trying Newsblur - for which I had to fork out $24p.a. for the premium service because I needed to transfer 554 feeds (!) most of which are to do with art.  

Screenshot of what Newsblur looks like
Left pane: List of feeds in a folder
Middle pane: List of blog posts on one blog
Right pane: Text and images from the blog (with different options for what it looks like)

• So far, I've discovered: