Good,bad or indifferent,the Archibald Prize is the Art Gallery of NSW’s (AGNSW) biggest event of the year,every year. It has become such a fixture on the nation’s cultural calendar that it is guaranteed a huge audience while more adventurous projects fail to pack ’em in.
Part of the Archibald’s appeal is that it is a celebration of our diversity – of the many different strands that make up Australian society today. The old and the young,the rich and the poor,the famous and the unknown come together for a few months on the walls of the AGNSW. It reminds us of that mythical democratic ethos we’ve been so busy shredding for the past couple of decades. As such,it’s a politically charged show but only a fortnight away from a federal election there are no portraits of sitting politicians. The partial exception is an amazingly feeble picture of former pollie,Peter Garrett,by Anh Do who,as an artist,is a great comedian.
A more interesting political proposition is an amateurish but lively self-portrait by Mostafa Azimitabar,a Kurdish refugee from Iran who has just been released after 2,737 days of detention. No wonder he looks slightly green around the gills. One hopes Azimitabar’s inclusion in the Archibald makes people reflect on the inhumanity of Australia’s off-shore detention policies. If he were declared the winner it would be a monumental embarrassment to the politicians,but this is improbable to say the least.
So,who will win? I thought there were two most likely:Richard Lewer’sLiz Laverty – the third and best portrait the artist has produced of this well-known patron and collector. Despite the bright orange colour scheme it’s a modest painting in which each casual detail – from the newspapers to the coffee cup – makes us feel we know Laverty well.
The other,and more plausible,contender,is Blak Douglas’sMoby Dickens,a towering portrait of First Nations artist Karla Dickens standing knee-deep in water,holding a bucket in each hand. This is Blak Douglas’s best-ever Archibald entry,and his flat,Pop Art style takes nothing away from an excellent likeness that even extends to the sitter’s temperament. Dickens looks angry about the Lismore floods,or perhaps about the slowness of the government response.
It’s worth noting that both Lewer and Dickens are among the privileged few who have been entrusted with prestigious commissions recently by the AGNSW. In racing parlance,they have form.