Peter Wegner wins 100th Archibald Prize with Guy Warren portrait

A portrait of Sydney painter Guy Warren has won the historic 100th Archibald Prize for portraiture at the Art Gallery of NSW, netting $100,000 for artist Peter Wegner.

A portrait of Sydney painter Guy Warren has won the historic 100th Archibald Prize for portraiture at the Art Gallery of NSW, netting $100,000 for artist Peter Wegner.

The portrait is titled ‘Portrait of Guy Warren at 100.’

Mr Wegner was unable to attend the announcement in Sydney as he remains in Melbourne lockdown but Mr Warren, however, was in attendance.

“I think I will get almost as much pleasure out of this as if I had won the damn thing myself,” he said.

Mr Warren won the Archibald Prize, in 1985, with a portrait of artist Bert Flugelman.

The public can view the winning work and the 51 other finalists at the AGNSW from Saturday until September 26.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Australia’s best-known portraiture prize, which has revelled in its controversies and court cases across the years, the AGNSW has also staged a special exhibition of called Archie 100: A Century of the Archibald Prize.

Archibald Prize winning portrait of Guy Warren by Peter Wegner. Picture: AGNSW, Jenni Carter

Actor Rachel Griffiths, the subject of artist Natasha Bieniek’s tiny but impeccable painting in this year’s finals, is also fronting a three-part Mint Pictures documentary which seeks to find, from among the more than 32,000 entries since 1921, one portrait that will stand the test of time.

The series airs on ABC television from June 15.

First awarded in 1921, the Archibald Prize was established following a bequest from former Art Gallery trustee and founder of The Bulletin magazine, J.F. Archibald.

It has been awarded annually (except for in 1964 and 1980) to the best portrait “preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in arts, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia”.

Portraits must be painted from life.

An alternative selection of Archibald Prize works will be exhibited as usual in the Salon des Refuses at the S.H. Ervin Gallery in The Rocks, from Saturday until August 15.

The Archibald Prize achieved gender parity among its finalists for the first time this year, and one third of this year’s finalists have never been hung in the exhibition before.

There were 938 entries to this year’s Archibald, the second highest on record after 2020.

The prize is judged by the AGNSW trustees, among whom are well-known artists Ben Quilty and Tony Albert.

YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW:

1. Sydney artist Guy Warren, who has just turned 100, was born in the same year as the inaugural Archibald Prize was awarded.

Warren’s first job was at The Bulletin, founded by J.F. Archibald who established the Archibald Prize in his will.

Warren won the 1985 Archibald with a portrait of Bert Flugelman, which is in the Archie 100 exhibition. Peter Wegner’s portrait of Warren is a finalist this year.

2. In 1968 only the winning work was hung due to building works in the gallery.

3. For 1921 there is no catalogue or list of works hung in the Archibald. Artists and subjects listed on the AGNSW prize database are taken from media reports and other sources. The inaugural winner of the was W.B. McInnes’ portrait of Melbourne architect Desbrowe Annear.