Art

Announcing The Finalists For The Record-Breaking 2020 Archibald Prize

In a welcome sign of relative normality in Australia’s art world, yesterday the finalists for the 2020 Archibald Prize were announced! Out of a record-breaking 1068 entries from across Australia, 55 finalists have been selected for the country’s most prestigious portrait painting prize.

Here are some of our favourites of the finalists, ahead of the overall Prize winner announcement next week!

Written
by
Sally Tabart

‘Behrouz Boochani’ by Angus McDonald.

Left: ‘Soils for life’, Lucy Culliton. Photo – AGNSW, Jenni Carter.

Right: ‘Lucy’, Monica Rohan. Photo – AGNSW, Mim Stirling.

‘Ernest brothers’, Neil Tomkins and Digby Webster. Photo – AGNSW, Felicity Jenkins.

Left to right: ‘Jacinda’, John Ward Knox. Photo – AGNSW, Jenni Carter.

‘Carnation, lily, Yuri, rose’, Yuri Shimmyo. Photo – AGNSW, Mim Stirling.

 

Left:  ‘Dolly visits Indulkana’, Kaylene Whiskey. Photo – AGNSW, Mim Stirling.

Right: ‘My dad, Churchill Cann’, Charlene Carrington. Photo – AGNSW, Mim Stirling.

‘Portrait of Adam Spencer’, Samuel Rush Condon. Photo – AGNSW, Jenni Carter.

Left to right: ‘JB reading’, Guy Maestri. Photo – AGNSW, Jenni Carter.

‘Disquietude’, Melanie Gray. Photo – AGNSW, Mim Stirling.

‘Poppy Chicka’, Thea Anamara Perkins. Photo – AGNSW, Felicity Jenkins.

Left: ‘Stand strong for who you are’, Vincent Namatjira. Photo – AGNSW, Mim Stirling.

Right: ‘L-FRESH The LION’, Claus Stangl. Photo – AGNSW, Felicity Jenkins.

Left to right: ‘Ngaiire’, Nick Stathopoulos. Photo – AGNSW, Jenni Carter.

‘Maggie Tabberer 2020’, Paul Newton. Photo – AGNSW, Felicity Jenkins.

‘Self-portrait after ‘Allegory of Painting’, Tsering Hannaford. Photo – AGNSW, Jenni Carter.

Left: ‘Meyne’, Meyne Wyatt. Photo – AGNSW, Mim Stirling.

Right: ‘‘Dark emu’ – portrait of Bruce Pascoe’, Craig Ruddy. Photo – AGNSW, Jenni Carter.

 

Left to right: ‘Requiem (JR)’, Marcus Wills. Photo – AGNSW, Jenni Carter.

‘The art dealer: Philip Bacon’, Jun Chen. Photo – AGNSW, Felicity Jenkins.

‘Portrait of Will’, Alex Thorby. Photo – AGNSW, Felicity Jenkins.

Writer
Sally Tabart
17th of September 2020

Despite the delay to regular programming this year, the 2020 Archibald Prize has made history. A record number of 1068 entries were submitted in what has been an incredibly challenging year for artists, and yesterday the Art Gallery of New South Wales announced the 55 finalists for Australia’s highest honour in portrait painting.

The subjects of this year’s shortlisted paintings include a breathtakingly realistic portrait of Kurdish-Iranian writer, poet, filmmaker and journalist Behrouz Boochani by Angus McDonald; a wild and wonderful medley of Aboriginal cultural symbols with Western pop culture references in Kaylene Whiskey’s self portrait, imagined with one of her heroes, Dolly Parton; and footballer Adam Goodes alongside the artist Vincent Namatjira, in a poignant picture of strength and brotherhood.

Actor, playwright and Wongutha-Yamatji man Meyne Wyatt has become the first Indigenous artist to be awarded a prize in the Archibald’s 99-year history, taking home the hotly-anticipated Packing Room Prize. ‘When Meyne came into the Gallery to deliver his entry he said he hadn’t painted in some time and the work was just a COVID project’ says Brett Cuthbertson, the Gallery’s head packer, who holds 52% of the vote for the Packing Room Prize (and has been there for 39 years!). ‘I loved the story and was really impressed with the result.’

Meyne is well known for numerous film/television and stage appearances over the last decade, but you might recognise his face from when he performed a powerful four-minute monologue on racism from his play City Of Gold on ABC’s Q&A that went viral only a couple of months ago. ‘Being a finalist for the Archibald Prize was a pipe dream, let alone being awarded the Packing Room Prize. I am absolutely ecstatic and truly humbled by this wonderful honour’, Meyne said.

The winners of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes will be announced at midday next Friday September 25th. The exhibition of finalists will open at Art Gallery New South Wales from September 26th until January 2021 and will then tour across regional New South Wales and Queensland for the following 12 months.

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