Archibald Prize
Encyclopedia
The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portrait
ure prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald
, the editor of The Bulletin
who died in 1919. It is administered by the Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales
and awarded for "the best portrait, preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics, painted by an artist resident in Australia during the twelve months preceding the date fixed by the Trustees for sending in the pictures." The Archibald Prize is awarded annually and , the prize is A$
75,000.
The first prize awarded in 1921 was £400. In the early years of the Archibald Prize, the winner was dominated by Victoria
ns, such as McInnes
, Longstaff
, and Dargie
, which was somewhat resented by the art community in Sydney.
In 1942 William Dargie won the prize with a painting which he had done as an official war artist
during World War 2
in Syria. The ship carrying the painting back to Australia sank and the canvas was underwater for some time.
1946 was the first year in which the trustees selected works for entry, rather than displaying all those entered. Less than a third of the entries were chosen for exhibition.
Another notable winner is the 1956 portrait of Australia's celebrated Aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira
, by William Dargie. The portrait was done while the sitter was visiting Sydney from the Central Desert. In 1956 the Archibald prize money was $1,364.
In 1964 and 1980 the Trustees decided not to award the prize to anyone, deeming that no work was at the required standard.
There are usually about 700 entries in the Archibald Prize, of which only about 40 or so are selected as finalists for hanging. Only one entry is allowed per person each year. Some of the winning artists have had to enter for many years before they were hung. In 2005, comedian Peter Berner
made a documentary called Loaded Dog which interviewed fourteen selected Australian painters and showed how many times each of them had entered compared with how many times they had been hung as finalists, shown in the following table (asterisk denotes winners of the main prize):
Entrants in 2006 included a painting of one of the The Wiggles
by Patrick Whiteley, actor Steve Bisley
by Bronwyn Graham, Garry McDonald
by Paul Jackson which is said to be a favourite with the packers, Steve Bracks
by Garry Anderson, Cate Blanchett
by McLean Edwards, Ernie Dingo
by Marie Klement, Dennis Lillee
by Melinda Mackay, Wilbur Wilde
by Phillip Howe, Peter Slipper
by Wayne Strickland. The 2010 prize winner was Sam Leach with his painting of Tim Minchin
.
's winning painting of Joshua Smith was challenged because of claims it was a caricature rather than a portrait.
The Archibald is one of the few art prizes in which the artist's signature is covered up so as not to be seen by the judges during initial selection for the final. In Australia's small art community this has been seen as allowing nepotism whereby the judges (several of whom are artists and several of whom have no arts qualifications at all) might simply be selecting their friends' works rather than those based on merit.
Max Meldrum
criticised the Archibald Prize winner in 1938, saying that women could not be expected to paint as well as men. Nora Heysen
was the first woman to win the Archibald Prize, with a portrait of Madame Elink Schuurman, the wife of the Consul General for the Netherlands.
In 1953 several art students including John Olsen
protested William Dargie's winning portrait, the seventh time he had been awarded the prize. One protester tied a sign around her dog which said "Winner Archibald Prize – William Doggie". Dargie went on to win the prize again in 1956.
After Prime Minister Gough Whitlam
was dismissed he refused to sit for the traditional portrait which is done of Australian Prime Ministers, and instructed that the 1972 Archibald Prize winning portrait by Clifton Pugh
be used instead. This is now hanging at New Parliament House
in Canberra
.
In 1975, John Bloomfield's portrait of Tim Burstall was disqualified on the grounds that it had been painted from a blown up photograph, rather than from life. The prize was then awarded to Kevin Connor. Later, legal action was threatened by John Bloomfield in 1981, claiming that the winner that year, Eric Smith
had not painted his subject from life. In 1983 John Bloomfield sued for the return of the 1975 prize which was unsuccessful. In 1995 the application form of the Archibald Prize was modified based on this to make clear that the subject must be painted from life.
In 1985, administration of the trust was transferred to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, after a court case where the Perpetual Trustee Company took the Australian Journalists Association Benevolent Fund to court.
In 1997 the painting of the Bananas in Pyjamas
television characters by Evert Ploeg
was deemed ineligible by the trustees because it was not a painting of a person. Although this was an incident which was seized upon by the media, hundreds of portraits each year are not accepted as finalists.
Another controversy involved the 2000 Archibald winner, when artist Adam Cullen
lodged a complaint with the American Broadcasting Company
who had used his painting, Portrait of David Wenham, in a television commercial.
In 2002, head packer Steve Peters singled out a painting of himself by Dave Machin as a possible winner for the Packing Room Prize. It did not win, but it was hung outside the Archibald exhibition. Following this, portraits of the head packer were no longer allowed.
In 2004 Craig Ruddy
's image of David Gulpilil
, which won both the main prize and the "People's Choice" award, was challenged on the basis that it was a charcoal sketch rather than a painting. The claim was dismissed in the Supreme Court in June 2006.
In 2008 Sam Leach
's image of himself as Hitler made the front page of Melbourne's newspaper The Age
and sparked a national debate about the appropriateness of his choice of subject matter. The prize money was also changed to $50 000
Twice there has been a matching Packing prize winner and People's choice award (neither won the main prize), to Paul Newton
's portrait of Roy Slaven and HG Nelson
in 2001, and to Jan Williamson
's portrait of singer/songwriter Jenny Morris the following year in 2002.
, the recent Australian Photographic Portrait Prize
and was held with the Dobell Prize
before 2003. The Archibald prize is the next richest portrait prize in Australia, after the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
. However, the Archibald is the only artist's prize that receives much attention in the general press. Part of the reason is probably that many of the paintings feature prominent Australians such as actors, sportspeople, and politicians, and thus making the art more accessible than other genres. It is also longer running with a richer tradition than the newer established portrait prizes.
In 1978 Brett Whiteley
won the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes all in the same year, the only time this has happened. It was his second win for the Archibald and the other prizes as well.
Some works which do not make the Archibald Prize finalists are shown at the S. H. Ervin Gallery
in the Salon des Refusés
exhibition, which began in 1992.
The satirical Bald Archy Prize, supposedly judged by a cockatoo
, was started in 1994 at the Coolac Festival of Fun as a parody of the Archibald Prize; it attracted so many visitors that it has moved to Sydney.
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
ure prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald
J. F. Archibald
Jules François Archibald, known as J. F. Archibald, , Australian journalist and publisher, was co-owner and editor of The Bulletin during the days of its greatest influence in Australian politics and literary life...
, the editor of The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
who died in 1919. It is administered by the Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
and awarded for "the best portrait, preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics, painted by an artist resident in Australia during the twelve months preceding the date fixed by the Trustees for sending in the pictures." The Archibald Prize is awarded annually and , the prize is A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
75,000.
History
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
ns, such as McInnes
William Beckwith McInnes
William Beckwith McInnes was an Australian portrait painter, winner of the Archibald Prize seven times for his traditional style paintings.-Early life:...
, Longstaff
John Longstaff
Sir John Campbell Longstaff was an Australian painter, war artist and a five-time winner of the Archibald Prize. He was a cousin of Will Longstaff, also a painter....
, and Dargie
William Dargie
Sir William Alexander Dargie CBE was an Australian painter, known especially for his portrait paintings. He holds the record for the most Archibald Prize wins; eight. He was an official Australian War Artist during World War II.- Biography :William Dargie was born in Footscray, Victoria, the first...
, which was somewhat resented by the art community in Sydney.
In 1942 William Dargie won the prize with a painting which he had done as an official war artist
War artist
A war artist depicts some aspect of war through art; this might be a pictorial record or it might commemorate how "war shapes lives." War artists have explored a visual and sensory dimension of war which is often absent in written histories or other accounts of warfare.- Definition and context:A...
during World War 2
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in Syria. The ship carrying the painting back to Australia sank and the canvas was underwater for some time.
1946 was the first year in which the trustees selected works for entry, rather than displaying all those entered. Less than a third of the entries were chosen for exhibition.
Another notable winner is the 1956 portrait of Australia's celebrated Aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira
Albert Namatjira
Albert Namatjira , born Elea Namatjira, was an Australian artist. He was a Western Arrernte man, an Indigenous Australian of the Western MacDonnell Ranges area...
, by William Dargie. The portrait was done while the sitter was visiting Sydney from the Central Desert. In 1956 the Archibald prize money was $1,364.
In 1964 and 1980 the Trustees decided not to award the prize to anyone, deeming that no work was at the required standard.
There are usually about 700 entries in the Archibald Prize, of which only about 40 or so are selected as finalists for hanging. Only one entry is allowed per person each year. Some of the winning artists have had to enter for many years before they were hung. In 2005, comedian Peter Berner
Peter Berner
Peter Berner is an Australian comedian, radio and television presenter, probably best known as host of television's The Einstein Factor.-Comedy:He has been involved in the Australian comedy scene since the 1990s...
made a documentary called Loaded Dog which interviewed fourteen selected Australian painters and showed how many times each of them had entered compared with how many times they had been hung as finalists, shown in the following table (asterisk denotes winners of the main prize):
| Jenny Sages Jenny Sages Jenny Sages is an Australian artist born 1933 in Shanghai, China, who arrived in Australia in 1948. After being expelled from East Sydney Tech, Jenny moved to New York to study at Franklin School of Art... |
Lewis Miller* | Bill Leak Bill Leak Bill Leak is a cartoonist and painter, primarily of portraits. He is the daily editorial cartoonist on The Australian newspaper. He has won the Walkley Awards nine times.... |
Rick Amor Rick Amor Rick Amor is an Australian artist and figurative painter. He was an official war artist.-Life and work:Rick Amor was born in Frankston, Victoria, Australia. He has a certificate in art from the Caulfield Institute of Technology, and Associate Diploma in Painting from the National Gallery School,... |
Adam Cullen Adam Cullen Adam Cullen , Australian artist, most known for winning the Archibald Prize in 2000 with a portrait of actor David Wenham. He is also known for his controversial subjects or work... * |
Peter Churcher Peter Churcher Peter Churcher is an Australian artist. He paints portraits and figures in a realistic style.-Life and work:Peter Churcher was born in Brisbane, Queensland. He is the son of Betty Churcher, who was the director of the National Gallery of Australia from 1990-1997. Churcher is currently living and... |
Ben Quilty Ben Quilty Ben Quilty is an Australian artist who won the 2011 Archibald Prize.-Biography:Quilty grew up in Kenthurst in Sydney's north-west. He lives and works in Robertson, New South Wales. He is a graduate of the Sydney College of the Arts at the University of Sydney... |
Anthony Bennett Anthony Bennett (Australian artist) Anthony Bennett is an Australian artist born in Mackay Queensland in 1966. He has lived and worked in Tokyo, Rome and London and has exhibited nationally in Australia and internationally. He was a finalist in the Archibald Prize in 2009 for the second year running and was also a finalist in both... |
Wendy Sharpe Wendy Sharpe Wendy Sharpe is an Australian artist. Winner of the Sulman Prize in 1986 with Black Sun - Morning and Night and the Archibald Prize in 1996 with Self Portrait - as Diana of Erskineville, she has entered the Archibald Prize at least 6 times and been hung at least 3 times... * |
Sam Leach Sam Leach Sam Leach is an emerging Australian contemporary artist. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia. Leach worked for many years in the Australian Tax Office after completion of a degree in Economics. He also completed a Diploma of Art, Bachelor of Fine Art degree and a Master of Fine Art degree at... * |
Euan MacLeod Euan MacLeod Euan MacLeod , New Zealand artist who won the Archibald Prize in 1999. He was born in Christchurch in New Zealand and moved to Sydney in 1981. He has a Diploma of Fine Arts from Canterbury University in Christchurch... * |
Craig Ruddy Craig Ruddy Craig Ruddy is an Australian artist.In 2004 Ruddy won the Archibald Prize for his charcoal drawing of David Gulpilil entitled Two Worlds... * |
Jasper Knight Jasper Knight Jasper Knight is an Australian artist based in Sydney. He is the brother of Chaser writer Dominic Knight.Knight was a finalist in the 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010 Archibald Prize with portraits of Richard Gill, Bob Carr, his grandfather Sir Harold Knight, himself and Bill Wright AM respectively... |
Max Cullen Max Cullen Max Cullen is an Australian stage and screen actor. Max has appeared in many Australian films and television series but is best known for his role in the film Spider and Rose and the television series The Flying Doctors and Love My Way.Cullen was born in Wellington, New South Wales... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hung | 14 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Entered | 15 | 17 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
Entrants in 2006 included a painting of one of the The Wiggles
The Wiggles
The Wiggles are a children's group formed in Sydney, Australia in 1991. Their original members were Anthony Field, Phillip Wilcher, Murray Cook, Greg Page, and Jeff Fatt. Wilcher left the group after their first album...
by Patrick Whiteley, actor Steve Bisley
Steve Bisley
Steve Bisley is an Australian film and television actor, who attended the National Institute of Dramatic Art .-Acting career:...
by Bronwyn Graham, Garry McDonald
Garry McDonald
Garry George McDonald, AO is an Australian stage and screen actor.-Early life and career:McDonald was born in Sydney and was educated at Cranbrook School and National Institute of Dramatic Art....
by Paul Jackson which is said to be a favourite with the packers, Steve Bracks
Steve Bracks
Stephen Philip Bracks AC is a former Australian politician and the 44th Premier of Victoria. He first won the electoral district of Williamstown in 1994 for the Australian Labor Party, and was party leader and Premier from 1999 to 2007....
by Garry Anderson, Cate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett
Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett is an Australian actress. She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award...
by McLean Edwards, Ernie Dingo
Ernie Dingo
Ernie Dingo AM is an Indigenous Australian actor and television presenter originating from the Yamatji people of the Murchison region of Western Australia.-Background:...
by Marie Klement, Dennis Lillee
Dennis Lillee
Dennis Keith Lillee, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation"...
by Melinda Mackay, Wilbur Wilde
Wilbur Wilde
Wilbur Wilde is an Australian saxophonist. He rose to prominence with the bands Ol' 55, Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons...
by Phillip Howe, Peter Slipper
Peter Slipper
Peter Neil Slipper , Australian politician, has served as the 27th Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives since November 2011, after serving as Deputy Speaker following the 2010 election...
by Wayne Strickland. The 2010 prize winner was Sam Leach with his painting of Tim Minchin
Tim Minchin
Timothy David "Tim" Minchin is a British-Australian comedian, actor, and musician.Tim Minchin is best known for his musical comedy, which has featured in six CDs, three DVDs and a number of live comedy shows which he has performed internationally. He has also appeared on television in Australia,...
.
Controversy
The prize has historically attracted a good deal of controversy and several court cases; the most famous was in 1943 when William DobellWilliam Dobell
Sir William Dobell, OBE was an Australian artist .The electoral Division of Dobell is named after him.- Life :...
's winning painting of Joshua Smith was challenged because of claims it was a caricature rather than a portrait.
The Archibald is one of the few art prizes in which the artist's signature is covered up so as not to be seen by the judges during initial selection for the final. In Australia's small art community this has been seen as allowing nepotism whereby the judges (several of whom are artists and several of whom have no arts qualifications at all) might simply be selecting their friends' works rather than those based on merit.
Max Meldrum
Max Meldrum
Duncan Max Meldrum was a Scottish born Australian painter. He is known as the founder of Australian Tonalism, a representational style of painting, as well as his portrait work, for which he won the Archibald Prize in 1939 and 1940.-Early Life and Training:Meldrum was born in Edinburgh, Scotland,...
criticised the Archibald Prize winner in 1938, saying that women could not be expected to paint as well as men. Nora Heysen
Nora Heysen
Nora Heysen AM was an Australian artist, the first woman to win the prestigious Archibald Prize for portraiture and the first Australian woman appointed as an official war artist.-Biography:...
was the first woman to win the Archibald Prize, with a portrait of Madame Elink Schuurman, the wife of the Consul General for the Netherlands.
In 1953 several art students including John Olsen
John Olsen (artist)
John Henry Olsen, AO, OBE is an Australian artist. Olsen's primary subject of work is landscape.-Biography:John Olsen was born in Newcastle on 21 January 1928 and moved to Bondi Beach with his family in 1935, which began his lifelong fascination with Sydney Harbour...
protested William Dargie's winning portrait, the seventh time he had been awarded the prize. One protester tied a sign around her dog which said "Winner Archibald Prize – William Doggie". Dargie went on to win the prize again in 1956.
After Prime Minister Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
was dismissed he refused to sit for the traditional portrait which is done of Australian Prime Ministers, and instructed that the 1972 Archibald Prize winning portrait by Clifton Pugh
Clifton Pugh
Clifton Ernest Pugh AO, was an Australian artist and three-time winner of Australia's Archibald Prize. He was strongly influenced by German Expressionism, and was known for his landscapes and portraiture...
be used instead. This is now hanging at New Parliament House
Parliament House, Canberra
Parliament House is the meeting facility of the Parliament of Australia located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The building was designed by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects and opened on 1988 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia...
in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
.
In 1975, John Bloomfield's portrait of Tim Burstall was disqualified on the grounds that it had been painted from a blown up photograph, rather than from life. The prize was then awarded to Kevin Connor. Later, legal action was threatened by John Bloomfield in 1981, claiming that the winner that year, Eric Smith
Eric Smith (artist)
Eric John Smith is an award-winning Australian artist. Smith has won many of Australia's major art prizes multiple times including the Archibald Prize for portraiture three times; the Wynne Prize twice; the Sulman Prize three times; and the Blake Prize for Religious Art six times.-Life and...
had not painted his subject from life. In 1983 John Bloomfield sued for the return of the 1975 prize which was unsuccessful. In 1995 the application form of the Archibald Prize was modified based on this to make clear that the subject must be painted from life.
In 1985, administration of the trust was transferred to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, after a court case where the Perpetual Trustee Company took the Australian Journalists Association Benevolent Fund to court.
In 1997 the painting of the Bananas in Pyjamas
Bananas in Pyjamas
Bananas in Pyjamas is an Australian children's television show that premiered in July 1992 on ABC Television. It has since become syndicated in many different countries, and dubbed into other languages. In the United States, the "Pyjamas" in the title was modified to reflect the American spelling...
television characters by Evert Ploeg
Evert Ploeg
-Archibald Prize:In 1999, Ploeg's painting of actress Deborah Mailman painted on wool bales was hung in the Archibald Prize, and won the People's Choice Award. In 2000, his painting of athlete Louise Sauvage was hung in the Archibald Prize....
was deemed ineligible by the trustees because it was not a painting of a person. Although this was an incident which was seized upon by the media, hundreds of portraits each year are not accepted as finalists.
Another controversy involved the 2000 Archibald winner, when artist Adam Cullen
Adam Cullen
Adam Cullen , Australian artist, most known for winning the Archibald Prize in 2000 with a portrait of actor David Wenham. He is also known for his controversial subjects or work...
lodged a complaint with the American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
who had used his painting, Portrait of David Wenham, in a television commercial.
In 2002, head packer Steve Peters singled out a painting of himself by Dave Machin as a possible winner for the Packing Room Prize. It did not win, but it was hung outside the Archibald exhibition. Following this, portraits of the head packer were no longer allowed.
In 2004 Craig Ruddy
Craig Ruddy
Craig Ruddy is an Australian artist.In 2004 Ruddy won the Archibald Prize for his charcoal drawing of David Gulpilil entitled Two Worlds...
's image of David Gulpilil
David Gulpilil
David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu , is an Indigenous Australian traditional dancer and actor. His first starring role was Walkabout....
, which won both the main prize and the "People's Choice" award, was challenged on the basis that it was a charcoal sketch rather than a painting. The claim was dismissed in the Supreme Court in June 2006.
In 2008 Sam Leach
Sam Leach
Sam Leach is an emerging Australian contemporary artist. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia. Leach worked for many years in the Australian Tax Office after completion of a degree in Economics. He also completed a Diploma of Art, Bachelor of Fine Art degree and a Master of Fine Art degree at...
's image of himself as Hitler made the front page of Melbourne's newspaper The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
and sparked a national debate about the appropriateness of his choice of subject matter. The prize money was also changed to $50 000
Additional categories
Since 1935 there have been two extra categories added to the Archibald prize event. Both are more likely than the main prize to award the portrait of a celebrity. In 1991 the Packing Room Prize was established, in which the staff who receive the portraits and install them in the gallery, vote for their choice of winner. Although the prize is said to be awarded by the staff, the gallery's head storeman – , Steve Peters – holds 51% of the vote. The other category is the People's Choice Award in which votes from the viewing public are collected to find a winner. This award also comes with a monetary prize of $2,500. To date, there has never been a matching Archibald Prize winner and a Packing Room Prize chosen in the same year, but there were two People's Choice Awards given to Archibald Prize winners in 1988 and 2004.Twice there has been a matching Packing prize winner and People's choice award (neither won the main prize), to Paul Newton
Paul Newton
Paul Newton, Australian artist who has twice won the Packing Room award at the Archibald Prize. He won in 1996 with a portrait of announcer John Laws, and again in 2001 with a portrait of characters Roy Slaven and HG Nelson, which also won the people's choice award...
's portrait of Roy Slaven and HG Nelson
Roy and HG
Roy & HG is an Australian comedy duo, comprising Greig Pickhaver in the role of "H [Harry] G Nelson" and John Doyle as "'Rampaging' Roy Slaven". Their act is an affectionate but irreverent parody of Australia's obsession with sport. Their characters based on archetypes in sports journalism: Nelson...
in 2001, and to Jan Williamson
Jan Williamson
Jan Williamson is an Australian artist. She is a mother of nine children. She is known for winning the Archibald Prize Packing Room Prize twice in a row: in 2002 with a portrait of Jenny Morris —which also won the People's Choice Award— and again in 2003 with a portrait of actor Rachel...
's portrait of singer/songwriter Jenny Morris the following year in 2002.
Associated prizes
The Archibald is held at the same time as the Sir John Sulman Prize, the Wynne PrizeWynne Prize
The Wynne Prize is an Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture art prize. One of Australia's longest running art prizes, it was established in 1897 from the bequest of Richard Wynne...
, the recent Australian Photographic Portrait Prize
Australian Photographic Portrait Prize
Australian Photographic Portrait Prize was a photographic art prize held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in conjunction with the Archibald Prize, Wynne Prize and Sulman Prize. The winner received $20,000, and their work was acquired by the gallery. In its inaugural year in 2003 there were 560...
and was held with the Dobell Prize
Dobell Prize
Dobell Prize for drawing, Australian art prize held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales the highest prize for drawing in Australia. The prize had previously been held in conjunction with the Archibald Prize, Sulman Prize, Wynne Prize, around the early part of the year, but was moved in 2003 to...
before 2003. The Archibald prize is the next richest portrait prize in Australia, after the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
The Doug Moran National Portrait Prize is an annual Australian portrait prize founded by Doug Moran in 1988, the year of Australia's Bicentenary. It is the richest portrait prize in the world with A$150,000 awarded to the winner and A$10,000 awarded to the runner-up...
. However, the Archibald is the only artist's prize that receives much attention in the general press. Part of the reason is probably that many of the paintings feature prominent Australians such as actors, sportspeople, and politicians, and thus making the art more accessible than other genres. It is also longer running with a richer tradition than the newer established portrait prizes.
In 1978 Brett Whiteley
Brett Whiteley
Brett Whiteley, AO was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald Prize...
won the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes all in the same year, the only time this has happened. It was his second win for the Archibald and the other prizes as well.
Some works which do not make the Archibald Prize finalists are shown at the S. H. Ervin Gallery
S. H. Ervin Gallery
The S.H. Ervin Gallery is a major public art institution housed in the historic National Trust Centre on Observatory Hill, The Rocks in Sydney, Australia.It is the venue for the Salon des Refuses, for portraits rejected by the Archibald Prize....
in the Salon des Refusés
Salon des Refusés (Archibald)
Salon des Refusés, a popular Australian art exhibition which shows some of the rejected works to the Archibald Prize, Australia's most prestigious art prize for portraiture, and also the Wynne Prize entries for landscape & figure sculpture. The Salon des Refusés exhibition was initiated in 1992 by...
exhibition, which began in 1992.
The satirical Bald Archy Prize, supposedly judged by a cockatoo
Cockatoo
A cockatoo is any of the 21 species belonging to the bird family Cacatuidae. Along with the Psittacidae and the Strigopidae , they make up the parrot order Psittaciformes . Placement of the cockatoos as a separate family is fairly undisputed, although many aspects of the other living lineages of...
, was started in 1994 at the Coolac Festival of Fun as a parody of the Archibald Prize; it attracted so many visitors that it has moved to Sydney.