The Archibald Prize for portraiture was instituted in 1921 at the bequest of Art Gallery of New South Wales Trustee J.F. Archibald, founder of Bulletin magazine and a character notable for both his bohemian artistic enthusiasms and a keen interest in Australian culture and identity. The prize reflects these twin passions, aiming to support the arts as well as celebrate notable public figures of Australia in portraiture.
The first Archibald Prize winner was W.B. McInnes for his oil painting of the Arts and Crafts-influenced architect Harold Desbrowe Annear. McInnes, a portrait specialist, went on to dominate the early Archibald competitions, winning the prize seven times throughout the 1920s and ‘30s.
Art Prize Controversy
Through the years, the prize has garnered as much controversy as plaudits. In 1943, two losing finalists legally contested the judges’ decision, challenging the fitness of the winning work, the modernist Portrait of an Artist (Joshua Smith) (William Dobell, 1943, oil on canvas) in adhering to the standards of portraiture. The court case, ultimately unsuccessful, served to publicize the award widely, and the Archibald Prize has remained a subject for widespread popular debate ever since.
During the subsequent decade, the pendulum seemed to swing back toward an implacable conservatism, sparking equally furious debate. When William Dargie captured his seventh Archibald in 1952 with a stolidly academic portrait of Essington Lewis, chairman of the mining company BHP, young artists demonstrated outside the gallery, and the New South Wales government moved to reform the terms of the Gallery Trustees' service.
More recently, public opinion has tended to cast the Trustees’ decisions as more cutting-edge. A particular turning point came in 1976 with innovative winner Brett Whiteley’s Self Portrait in the Studio (1976, oil & mixed media on canvas) radically reinterpreting the competition’s conventions of portraiture by placing the artist’s image in secondary importance to its surroundings.
Packing Room Prize and People’s Choice
Two supplementary awards have emerged in counterpoint to the official Archibald Prize. The Packing Room Prize, started in 1992, is awarded by staff responsible for unpacking and hanging the Archibald Prize exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Packing Room Prize winner has yet to coincide with the official Archibald winner, but the decisions enjoy widespread popular support.
The Art Gallery of New South Wales also runs a People’s Choice Award in conjunction with the Archibald Prize show. Visitors are invited to vote for their choices, and the winner is announced close to the end of the show’s AGNSW run. Two People’s Choice Awards have gone to the official Archibald winners: Fred Cress, John Beard, 1988; and Craig Ruddy, David Gulpilil, two worlds, 2004.
Sources:
- Ross, Peter, Let’s Face It: The History of the Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1999
- Waldman, Anna, The Archibald Prize: An illustrated history 1921-1981, Sydney, 1982
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