The Archibald

The Archibald

Usually I find portraiture under-mesmerizing.  I realize that’s an ugly revealing self-portrait in itself.  My art-in-the-dark professors, in many classes I undertook as an undergraduate, lavished praise on the portraits, but I’ve never been moved by them in a visceral way.  Even Rembrandt — the mystery of camera oscura, the pear-like lighting, the florid flesh as overripe — has that distance of view, the artist’s clinical dissection.  I can certainly admire the composition, the painterly expertise, the innovation — all without involvement.  But somehow in the series of portraiture shows that encompass the Archibald Prize and the Doug Moran National Portraiture Prize — the partnership of painter and subject, of painterliness and subject-ness, the clinical and direct — all come together in an astonishingly gripping show, year after year.  

The Archibald Prize (at the Gallery of New South Wales) and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (at the Mitchell Library) — the first a show of paintings of Australia’s famous people, and the second of paintings of Australia’s not-famous people — elevates portrait painting to the sublime.  Here the fusion of the painter and subject maximizes.  Each canvas has its own deliciousness, the sensuous mud-between-the-toes, paint-on-the-skin, smelly-cheese-and-great-wine smearing of paint.  And again, each has the revelation of character of the subject that great photographs ghost but great paintings capture.  Nowhere else has portraiture reached these heights in contemporary painting with such regularity.

Of the 200 entered, about 100 are hung.  The artists’ approaches vary from photorealistic to abstract, from representational to conceptual.  What interests me most, and what meets the threshold of art for me, is that each makes you think, to reexamine what portraiture means, what the self-portrait that we live each day means to each of us and those around us.  It’s rather like listening to Yo Yo Ma and Eric Clapton explore the rise and fall of emotion in music.  

That’s not to say that I agree with all the choices.   There are always a few that give rise to a big question mark hovering over one’s head like a thought balloon. (See Salon des Refusés below.) And there are a few that don’t rise at all to the level of painterly expertise found in the others.  But most, including the Packing Room Prize — the favorite of those who unpacked the show — are mink-on-bare-shoulders sumptuous.  

Not only does the Gallery of New South Wales host the Archibald, but also two more concurrent shows in adjoining gallery spaces: Sulman Prize for the best genre painting executed in the last two years and the Wynne Prize for the best landscape painting or figurative sculpture.  

I’d seen the Archibald’s traveling show which hits a handful of regional galleries throughout Australia each year at various places — at Murwillumbah and at Grafton.  Because the regional galleries are relatively small and the attendance low after the opening, one can get up close and personal with the paintings.  Each regional gallery has an allied restaurant with exceptional fare, and the dual delights of great food and terrific art were reason enough to indulge in both.  But, I’d longed to see the Archibald in its opening venue — the Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. 

Last year, I did get a chance to see the show in its opening month in Sydney.  The three concurrent shows at the Gallery of New South Wales and the Doug Moran across the Domaine at the Mitchell Library is just one big art banquet worth delving into.  This year, the Archibald, Sulman and Wynn Prizes opens to the public on March 7 and show through May 24.  Luckily, there are a couple of cafes at the gallery for weary feet and lots of places to rest in the great halls between the galleries.

The disappointment for me was that there were so many people at the Gallery of NSW, the lines for entrance long, and the distant view of the paintings impossible.  Far better for close-up scrutiny and the long view, I realized to wait for the regional shows, see it an one’s leisure, without the crowds.  (see schedule below)

That said, however, will the crowds deter me from seeing this year’s Archibald in Sydney?  Not on your tintype, missy!  Count me in!  

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The 2008 Archibald Prize is at the New England Regional Art Museum in Armidale until 8 Feb., at the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery from 14 Feb – 19 April, at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery from 20 April – 14 June, and the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery from 2 July – 23 August.  (www.thearchibaldprize.com.au/exhibition/tour)

The 2009 Archibald travels to Bendigo Art Gallery 30 May – 12 July, to Western Plains Cultural Centre 25 July – 13 September, to the Cowra Art Gallery 19 Sept – 25 Oct, to the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery on 6 November – 6 December, and to the Griffith Regional Gallery 14 January – 14 February 2010.  (www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/media/coming/aws09_important_dates

The best of the rest of the Archibald, the Wynn, and the Sulman (submitted but not chosen to hang in the main show)?  At the Salon des Refusés, of course. Opening March 8, 2009.  At the National Trust Gallery at the Rocks, Sydney.  For more information:  http://www.nsw.nationaltrust.org.au/properties/gallery/exhibitions/salon/

For more information on the Doug Moran Prize, go to:  http://www.moranprizes.com.au/portrait.php