| You can love it or hate it but the Archibald Prize, the oldest and most prestigious art award is now in its 87th year. It is extremely popular this year and since the opening on 8th of March nearly 45 000 visitors have been to the exhibition. There was an extraordinary number of 28 446 of visitors over the Easter weekend visiting the art Gallery of New South Wales including 40% who went to see the Archibald.
Founded by JF Archibald in 1921 whose aims were to foster portraiture, support artists and perpetuate the memory of great Australians. The $50000 prize is awarded for “best portrait painting preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics”.
Midday, Friday, 7tof March, a lot of people waiting, cameras ready to roll or flash, excitement in the air……………. and then the announcement.
Sydney artist Del Kathryn Barton has won the 2008 Archibald Prize for her painting “You are what is most beautiful about me”, a self portrait with Kell and Arella. Born in Sydney in 1972, Barton has a Bachelor of Fine Art from the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW, where she taught for three years until 2003. She has had regular solo exhibitions since 2000 and has participated in national and international group shows including the Helen Lempiere Travelling Art Scholarship, the Blake Prize for Religious Art and the Sulman Prize. She was a finalist in the 2007 Dobell Prize for Drawing.
Known for its vibrant, figurative imagery, Barton’s work combines traditional painting techniques with contemporary design and illustrative styles. Although she does a lot of figurative work, much of it self-referential, she doesn’t do a great deal of portraiture though she was represented in last year’s Archibald Prize with a painting of art dealer Vasili Kaliman.
Del Kathryn Barton’s self-portrait depicts her with her son and daughter, Kell and Arella. At the opening she has said :“This painting celebrates the love I have for my two children and how my relationship with them has radically informed and indeed transformed my understanding of who I am,” .
“The title of the work – you are what is most beautiful about me – alludes to that utterly profound ‘in-loveness’ that all mothers have for their children. Both my children have taken my world by storm and very little compares to the devotion I feel for them both. The intensity of this emotion is not something that I could have prepared myself for. The alchemy of life offered forth from my inhabitable woman's body is perhaps the greatest gift of my life.”
In the terms of the bequest of the late Richard Wynne of Mount Wilson, who died in 1895, the $25000 Wynne Prize is awarded to what the judges consider to be the “best landscape painting of Australian scenery in oils or watercolours, or for the best example of figure sculpture by an Australian artist”.
It was first awarded in 1897, in honour of the official opening of the Art Gallery of New South Wales at its present site. The 2008 Wynne Prize Winner is Joanne Curie Nalingu for her painting “The River is calm”.
The Trustees Watercolour Prize of $2000 is an accompanying award for best watercolour landscape and this year John Wolseley has been awarded for his painting “Carnel Gate, Border Track SA/VIC”.
The $20,000 Sulman Prize is awarded for the “best subject painting, genre painting or mural project by an Australian artist”. Established within the terms of the late Sir John Sulman's bequest, it was first presented in 1936. The 2008 Sulman Prize Winner has been awarded to Rodney Pople for his painting “Stage fright”.
The People`s Choice Prize, another winner will be announced on Thursday, 8 May at 11am. For chance to win $2500 cash and $1000 Myer gift card visit the exhibition to record your vote for the best painting in your view.
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman exhibition is currently in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney until 18 May 2008.
Barbara Aleksandrowicz – Dabrowa
Conservator of Fine Arts
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
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