Archibald Packing Room Prize: Jimmy Barnes portrait picked as winner
Updated
Sydney painter and first-time finalist Jamie Preisz has won the Archibald Packing Room Prize for his portrait of Jimmy Barnes.
The announcement means Archies season has kicked off at the Art Gallery of NSW, with the unveiling of the 58 finalists for this year's Archibald Prize for portraiture — Australia's oldest and arguably most popular art prize.
The Packing Room Prize represents the "layperson's" point of view and has been awarded annually since 1991 by the gallery's head packer.
As Archibald curator Anne Ryan told ABC's 7.30 program earlier this week: "It's a bit more akin to what our everyday visitors might appreciate and enjoy."
Preisz said of his sitter: "He's not just a rock musician, he's part of the cultural fabric of Australia. He's iconic."
The artist dedicated the work to his sister, Bella, who recently took her own life.
"The initial inspiration for this painting was if anyone's read Jimmy's book, his dad was a prize-fighting boxer in Glasgow," Preisz said.
"That was the beginning of painting and doing the wraps. Reading Jimmy's book I realised he's fought for everything that he's ever had."
The head packer and his team choose the winner from amongst all entries to the Archibald — but with the head packer holding 52 per cent of the vote, it is largely a matter of personal taste.
Former head packer Steve Peters told 7.30 the criteria is that "the work has to be good" and "the subject should be someone that everyone knows".
After 31 years presiding over the prize, Peters handed the reins to new head packer Brett Cuthbertson in 2018.
At the winner's announcement, Cuthbertson said the Preisz portrait was pretty much "the only contender" for him.
"To be honest, when the work arrived, I'd just been asked by a journalist who I'd like to see painted this year. Fair dinkum, I said Barnsey would be great.
"I turned around after the interview and there was a young artist turning his work around so we could see it.
"I couldn't believe it. It was Barnsey. The portrait stuck in my head for the week we were receiving entries.
"By the final day of submissions, it was still the only contender for me."
Barnes himself is pleased with the "beautiful" portrait.
"You might look at me and think, this guy's no oil painting, but Jamie's proven that wrong," Barnes said.
Speaking about his dad, Barnes added Preisz had summed up his past and his future perfectly.
"I came from a tough working class background where I had to fight to survive every day," Barnes said.
"I watched my father, who was a boxing champion, strap his hands before a fight … My dad had many fights ahead of him, some that we knew about and some that we didn't.
"Some he'd win and some he wouldn't. But he never laid down. My dad just kept getting back up. He had to fight for his life, and so have I."
The packer's choice gets $1,500 — but artists often call it the "kiss of death", as no winner has ever gone on to win the Archibald itself.
Who else is among the finalists?
The remaining 57 finalists for the Archibald Prize, chosen by the Art Gallery of NSW Board of Trustees, include some stalwarts and a whopping 22 first-timers — an anomaly in the history of the prize, which was first awarded in 1921.
It is South Australian painter Robert Hannaford's 20th time as an Archibald finalist (he has also won the People's Choice Award three times).
His daughter Tsering is carrying on the tradition: 2018 is her fourth consecutive year as a finalist in the Archibald Prize.
Sydney painter Nicholas Harding is only slightly behind, taking his 18th bow as an Archibald Prize finalist this year (with a self-portrait of himself during treatment for cancer); he also won the prize in 2001.
Other previous Archibald Prize winners who are finalists in 2018 include Euan MacLeod (1999), Del Kathryn Barton (2008 and 2013), Marcus Wills (2006), and Guy Maestri (2009).
The Archibald Prize has come under scrutiny in recent years for its record of gender imbalance, reaching parity amongst the finalist artists in 2016 for the first time (before plummeting back to disparity in 2017).
In 2018, in the wake of #MeToo, visitors may be heartened to find men and women equally celebrated on canvas and off: 27 of 58 finalists (roughly 47 per cent) are women; of 60 sitters featured, 31 are women (roughly 52 per cent).
The portraits are meant to depict an Australian man or woman who is "distinguished in art, letters, science or politics".
Subjects include Chief Justice of the High Court, Susan Kiefel, academic and author Dr Susan Carland, actor David Wenham, and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Pet lovers will be dismayed to find that only two sitters present as "good dogs". Cats have had a typically terrible year.
The winner of the 2018 Archibald Prize — worth $100,000 — will be announced on May 11.
The exhibitions for the Archibald, Wynne (landscape) and Sulman (subject, genre or mural painting) prizes runs from May 12 to September 9.
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, contemporary-art, visual-art, australia
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