In 2008, when I first visited Canberra’s newly opened National Portrait Gallery, my first response was an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. I knew many of those paintings. They had once hung on the walls of the Art Gallery of New South Wales as part of the annual Archibald Prize exhibition, or been seen in the Salon des Refusés home to the best of the rejects.
Over 49 years I have seen the Archibald from both the inside, as a curator, and the outside as a critic. My first Archibald was in 1972, the year Clifton Pugh won with his portrait of Gough Whitlam. Along with other art history students, I had never been especially interested in this festival of popular culture, but as the recently appointed most junior of all curators my job was to administer the prize.
Author: Joanna Mendelssohn
(MENAFN - The Conversation) The Members Hall of Parliament House is home to the 25 completed portraits of Australia s former prime ministers. The most recently revealed was of Julia Gillard in 2018, painted by Vincent Fantauzzo, a five-time People s Choice Award winner at the Archibald Prize.
Indeed, every official prime ministerial portrait has been painted by an Archibald finalist, including some by artists who were awarded the main prize.
This will change with Tony Abbott s reported decision to appoint the Australian s editorial cartoonist Johannes Leak to paint his official portrait. Leak does not have any track record of exhibiting works on a large scale, let alone portraits.
From the Archives, 1971: Archibald winner waited 25 years
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From the Archives, 1971: Archibald winner waited 25 years
When artist Eric Smith came runner up in the 1945 Archibald Prize, his first thought was I ll win it next year . A quarter of a century later, it finally happened.
By Lenore Nicklin
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Sydney Morning Herald on January 23, 1971.
Eric Smith yesterday won the Archibald Prize, Australia s top art prize for portraiture, but it took rather longer than he expected.
Twenty-five years ago, when he was serving as a driver in the Australian Army, he submitted his first Archibald entry, a self-portrait. He was runner-up.