The 2018 Archibald Prize - Part One

Last year when I was in Orange, I went to the marvellous Orange Regional Art Gallery to see the touring Archibald Prize exhibition. The Archibald Prize is awarded annually to the best portrait 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australia.' Often I don't know the subject, so I really enjoy finding out about the people as much as I appreciate the artwork itself.

The Huxleys by Sally Ross

I like this painting because of the androgyny of expression and the converse ostentation of the muted colour palette. Garrett and Will Huxley are visual artists and performers, who form a band called SOS (Style over Substance) and have been known to dress as Bauhaus worms or inflatable balls. Apparently Sally Ross knew she had to paint them when she saw them in 2017 performing in Discordia; a show involving a 'prawn-worshipping, rose-beige-costumed cult'. As you do.

"I saw the mysterious potential for art/ civilisation to be expressed within the handsome duo's magical physical presence. This portrait is a homage to the pure folie of the Huxleys' performances, as well as hairstyles found in the portraits of Otto Dix and Diego Velasquez. I wanted a deliberately distant, expressionless pose that transforms their glittery bodysuits and cheap, teased wigs into a portrait evoking the timeless silhouettes of antiquity and 'old paintings' I so admire."

Study for a self-portrait by Angela Tiatia

The unfinished quality of this painting is arresting. The subject has an urban skateboarder's stance, which is excessively contemporary, contrasting with the retro pattern on the floor. The face is fierce, while the body is sketchy - there is clearly a lot of attitude emanating from the canvas. The artist (who was born in New Zealand in 1973 to a Samoan mother and Australian father) writes,

"When I started painting, I wanted to portray myself as powerful and confident, but found the process produced the opposite feelings of vulnerability and fragility in anticipation of being looked at and judged. It's the friction between these two states of power and vulnerability that I am most interested in within my art practice.

Study for a self-portrait explores the tensions that exist within the historical and contemporary notions of the gaze. In European art-history the ever-recurring treatment of women as passive objects for the male gaze. This is complicated further by the treatment of women of colour as the 'exotic other', which is fetishised in works by artists such as Paul Gaugin."

Self: Past, Present and Future by Kathrin Longhurst

I like the clarity of the gaze of this portrait; the expression is candid and unflinching, but open to wonder and new experiences. The overlaid images of a disassembled tank and binary text add an industrial and militaristic feel, which is heightened by the muted colour palette. It is, apparently, a depiction of the artist's daughter, whose DNA will effectively create a self-portrait representing her past, present and future.

"Born in East Berlin in 1971, I grew up at the height of the Cold War. It was a time without the internet, surrounded by propaganda, and we constantly feared invasion from the 'imperialist West'... The tank alludes to our contemporary volatile environment: a new Cold War. But today's experiences are shaped and intertwined with social media. While this technology offers us a chance to seek the truth and understand our shared humanity, it is a double-edged sword spreading misinformation, extremism and conspiracy theories.

"My daughter represents my future. Her generation will inherit our planet. I am projecting my dreams and hopes onto her: she is part of me but also her own person inheriting the legacy we leave behind."

Abdul by Jonathan Dalton

The subject of this painting is Abdul Abdullah, a multi-disciplinary artist, whom Jonathan Dalton greatly admires. I like the casual, relaxed posture, and the feet beside the whisky decanter and glasses - it really does look as though the subject was pausing briefly in the middle of a story to check that the audience was paying attention. Dalton writes,

"Abdul has an infectious energy and easy affability that makes it impossible not to like him. But he has these moments of near laser-like focus and intensity when something catches his attention. I wanted to capture that penetrating intensity in his stare but juxtapose it against a delicate and pensive hand gesture. 

Abdul came to my studio for a sitting where I had carefully prepared a staged set. After making an initial sketch or two, I took approximately 250 photographs. But, despite the work appearing somewhat photorealistic, it has a false perspective that would be near impossible to reproduce in a conventional photograph. This was done to draw the eye to Abdul and artificially heighten his engagement with the viewer."

Lunch in the Outback by Dee Smart

The colours and composition of this one are just eye-popping. From the delicately held sandwich to the ridiculous underpants on the head; from the wry smile and twinkling eyes to the irritating presence of the fly; the whole things draws me in and makes me want to know more. I find this work thoroughly engaging in both its simplicity and complexity. 

The accompanying panel tells me that the subject of this painting is Meryl Tankard, a dancer, choreographer and director. 'After starting her career with the Australian Ballet, Tankard spent six years as a soloist with Tanztheatre Wuppertal, the legendary company of German choreographer, Pina Baush. Returning to Australia in 1984, she began creating unforgettable works that crossed dance, theatre and visual art. More recently, she has focused on screen and film culture.' Dee Smart explains,

"I have painted Meryl in her original cocktail dress she wore on stage during a performance with Pina Bausch, when she explained to the audience how she dealt with flies, then showed them by shimmying out of her undies, which she put on her head."

I'm not actually sure how this would help, and I don't want to think about it too much because it starts to get a little disturbing, but I like the bright humour of the picture nonetheless. 

Alison Whyte, a mother of the renaissance by Paul Jackson

This is another painting to which I'm drawn due to the colours - that deep decisive red matched with the confident lipstick, and the beautiful rich hue of her auburn hair - combined with the frank intensity and wry humour in the eyes. It's both soft and wavy due to the contours of her tresses, and spiky and angular, on account of the pointed ruff. It's very sensual and sensory. Artist, Paul Jackson, chose actor Alison Whyte as his subject.

"Alison is an actor I have admired since seeing her on Frontline. It was also helpful that her face has an Elizabethan feel - hence the ruff, a typical fashion item of the day both in the street and on the stage of the Globe Theatre. From a technical point of view, it allowed me to throw under-lighting on her very fair skin to create a luminosity typical of Tudor Renaissance painting."