Brisbane artists have a chance to shine with inaugural portrait prize
The Brisbane Portrait prize is the realisation of a long-held dream of founding director Anna Reynolds who wanted, and has now delivered, an opportunity for the brilliance of our local talent to shine.
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ENTERING the Brisbane Portrait Prize gave artist Joe Furlonger the chance to reflect.
Furlonger, 67, who lives at Samford, is a celebrated Brisbane painter with an impressive pedigree. He has won, among other things, our prestigious Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize and has been hung as one of the 100 finalists in the national Archibald Prize.
Vote for the Brisbane Portrait Prize People’s Choice Award
Now he’s a finalist in the Brisbane Portrait Prize which goes on public display at the Brisbane Powerhouse from Monday with the winners announced on October 10. (There will also be a related symposium on portraiture at the Queenaland College of Art, Griffith University, on October 12.)
Furlonger is one of 663 entrants and says he decided to do a self-portrait “to mark the progress of time”.
“I wanted to say something about the ageing process,” Furlonger says. “Now that I am past my mid 60s it’s nice to do a self-portrait that reflects that.”
It’s a somewhat ghostly piece but Furlonger says he didn't mean it to be dark.
He says it’s a good thing that we now have our own portrait prize and that the prize money (there is more than $80,000 up for grabs) “is not be sneezed at”.
He describes the annual Archibald Prize, administered by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, as being a bit like the Academy Awards.
“It’s all showbiz,” Furlonger says adding that he thinks the Brisbane Portrait Prize will be “more democratic”.
In a sense the Brisbane Portrait Prize is a response to years of being dudded in the Archibald Prize. In the last few decades we’ve only had two winners, Davida Allen and William Robinson who rather amazingly won twice. In recent years we’ve only had a trickle of finalists the most consistent of which has been the Chinese-born Brisbane artist Jun Chen, who has painted a portrait of your humble correspondent for the Brisbane Portrait Prize.
He has been our only finalist at one stage and made the Archibald Prize cut again this year with a portrait of Queensland Ballet artistic director Li Cunxin.
But scores on other Queensland artists are rejected and Brisbane art dealer and valuer Bruce Heiser says it’s that sort of thing which makes artists keen to enter the Brisbane Portrait Prize.
“I think it’s fair to say that the Archibald is regarded as being very southern-centric,” Heiser says. “It's a very political prize and everyone acknowledges that. Now with the Brisbane Portrait Prize artists have a real sense that this is something they can do. They feel they have a chance.”
Actually they will have a number of chances.
Vote for the Brisbane Portrait Prize People’s Choice Award
There’s the $50,000 Lord Mayor’s Prize, the $10,000 digital prize sponsored by Accenture, our very own Courier-Mail People’s Choice Award of $7,500, the Sylvia Jones Prize for Women Artists worth $5,000 and the $7500 performing arts and music award. from the Lister Family Foundation. (As in AEG Ogden chairman and chief executive Harvey Lister.
Senior Curator of the acclaimed William Robinson Gallery, Vanessa van Ooyen was responsible for culling the 100 finalists from a massive pool of 663 entries and Chris Saines, director of QAGOMA, will be the judge of the finalists works.
The prize’s founding director is Anna Reynolds, a former journalist and practising artist who had a dream and has now seen it through, with a little help from her friends.
“I saw lots of people doing great portraits and getting rejected by the Archibald and other prizes so I started talking about doing this with artist and gallerist Brett Lethbridge a few years ago,” Reynolds says. “We thought we’d be happy with a hundred or two hundred entries the first time around. But to get 663 is amazing. To say we are pleased with the engagement from artists is an understatement. And many businesses and donors have supported this new cultural event for Brisbane, proving once again that Brisbane is a major destination for arts and culture.”
Some of the art world’s big names have made the finalists list and many haven’t with reports of some very grumpy at not making the cut. Peter Churcher, Michael Zavros, Furlonger, Chen, Amanda Penrose Hart, Pat Hoffie, Bianca Beetson and Julie Fragar are just a few of the big names.
Subjects include a who’s who of Brisbane society leading to a certain snobbery in the populace. Brisbane seems to have been divided into two groups of people ... those who have been done for the Brisbane Portrait Prize and those who haven’t. Mind you there’s always next year.
Vote for the Brisbane Portrait Prize People’s Choice Award
The subjects this year include rugby great John Eales, State of Origin coach Kevin Walters (Cairns artist Andrew Bonneau has done Kevvie proud), fashion designer Pamela Easton, musician Katie Noonan, singer songwriter Amy Sheppard, internationally renowned pianist Piers Lane (Peter Churcher’s portrait of him is a knockout) and others.
Mind you it would tedious if it was all about celebrities and the good news is that there are plenty of regular folks who have sat for portraits.
Like the Brisbane bus driver who was painted by a cop. True story.
Stephen Tiernan, 50, is a detective inspector in internal investigations at Police headquarters in Brisbane and he also happens to be a budding artist.
Tiernan has entered the Archibald without luck so is chuffed to have made the cut for the Brisbane Portrait Prize with a portrait of Brisbane City Council bus driver Waylon Solomon.
“I wanted to pick someone who had a strong connection to Brisbane,” Tiernan says, “I wanted to portray someone working behind the scenes. “Waylon was a good candidate and he’s a proud Aboriginal man and was happy to sit for me, if a bit overwhelmed.”
Tiernan, who is studying for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree couldn't believe it when he got an email telling him his small scale painting had made the cut.
Mind you there are 563 others who will be disappointed.
Brisbane engineer and artist Tom Macbeth for example whose portrait of respected former public servant Sir Leo Hielscher did make the cut. But, perhaps surprisingly, his photo realist r portrait of Greg Norman did not. Which is a shame since he went all the way to Florida to meet with the golfing legend for a sitting.
But them’s the breaks in the portrait prize business.
It has bean fascinating in recent months to witness the excitement that The Brisbane Portrait Prize has generated and many have been revealed along the way. One of the first we heard of was also one of the most unusual.
Photographer Beth Mitchell had asked singer songwriter Amy Sheppard (the subject of two finalists works) if she would pose for a photo underwater.
Artist and photographer Beth Mitchell’s speciality is arty photos taken underwater and when she pitched to snap Sheppard for the Brisbane Portrait Prize the popular member of local band Sheppard didn't hesitate.
“As soon as I saw Beth’s work I said ...I’m in,” Sheppard says. “I’m honoured she wanted me to be her subject.”
The photo shoot took place at a swimming pool on the Gold Coast and the pair spent most of the day submerged, Mitchell with her camera in a special housing for the task. The result is quite beautiful and while it’s a contender for the top prize it could also win the digital category. Mitchell and Sheppard will have their fingers crossed although Sheppard has two bites at the cherry. Artist Elizabeth Barden has done a more traditional portrait of Sheppard and that will also hang in the finalists exhibition.
It’s a very parochial affair with entry conditional on both the artist and the sitter having a connection to Brisbane. The result is an exhibition that tells the stories of the people of Brisbane.
Voting in The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Award opens today, Saturday September 27.
The Brisbane Portrait Prize finalists exhibition is on at Brisbane Powerhouse from Monday September 30 until October 31. Winners in all categories will be announced on October 10; brisbaneportraitprize.org
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