This time we booked the first session of Saturday morning and arrived in sunny but chilly conditions. We were marshalled to our parking spot by the fine Rotary volunteers whose blood is worth bottling. If you are going there anytime soon, please thank them for their work. They stand there cheerfully through all weather just so that you can have a streamlined experience.
The exhibition was in a spacious gallery with great lighting
and even though we were there before the crowds (highly recommended that!)
there was plenty of room for viewing and some seating to sit and admire
paintings from a distance. I always like to get up close and read the artist
information but it is important to stand back and view as well as scan the
display to help to anticipate those paintings which really grab your attention.
Kathryn Del Barton’s painting of Hugo Weaving won the Archibald and it is so obviously a painting by her hand.
It is not a style I particularly like though that is just personal opinion. I bristled a little at the appropriation of aboriginal dot painting which makes up about one third of the image simply because I do not understand its purpose or whether it adds real meaning to the painting.
I loved Joshua McPherson’s portrait of Ella ( a child actress) for its straightforward beauty.
Sally Ryan’s classical portraiture of Dr Catherine Hamlin is
a fitting and dignified portrait of such a wonderful and wise woman and shows
warmth and respect.
I
would love to know more about Pilbara Land Council Representative, Wilfrid
Hicks portrayed by Julie Dowling. His eyes are engaging warm and full of
humanity.
Michael
Stavros Painting Bad Dad evoked images of the TV series The Slap (just in my
weird head) and was fascinating and beautiful.
I was intrigued and moved by Guy Morgan’s self portrait with
Peter Pan after Retinal Detachment. It is strongly coloured like a print but up
close the whole background is dotted with fine splattered ground which is
apparently applied with an eye dropper. He described the moment of his retinal
detachment as a sensation of light popping and sparking and I could identify
with it intensely having ruptured my eardrum on a number of occasions and if I
could have painted the experience, that was true for me, like a blown fuse
misfiring. The sensation of the experience while viewing the image was strong
and appalling as my sight is something I would miss so much.
Mertim Gokalp’s painting of Billie Brown is powerful and
conveys a lot about the calibre of a man who has come here as a very recent
immigrant and in a short time made a connection with an Australian actor at the
end of his life and revealed him to us in such a new and profound way.
Jules Francois Archibald set up the trust in 1920 which enables
The Archibald to be awarded each year.
The conditions of the Trust read
‘I direct my Trustees... to provide an annual prize to be
styled “The Archibald Prize” for the best portrait preferentially of some man
or woman distinguished in Arts Letters Science or Politics painted by any
artist resident in Australasia during the twelve months preceding the date
fixed by the Trustees...’
So it is very loose interpretation of the rules to allow
Carlos Pagoda’s painting of his father a 97 year old uneducated self sufficient
gardener to be a part of the exhibiton.
It is a fantastic and unique painting of
a no doubt unique man but in my mind does not qualify for entry. If his father
were famous for disseminating his garden styles I
believe it would be a different matter. But then again the Archibalds have
always been full of controversy.
Maybe one year I will have a go. Here's one of my son of many persuasive words and if I had had my say he would be a garrulous lawyer!
No comments:
Post a Comment