Vincent Fantauzzo portrait of Asher Keddie wins People's Choice in the Archibald Prize
DESPITE their "crazy lives" actress Asher Keddie and artist Vincent Fantauzzo manage to find peace in art - winning art at that.
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DESPITE their "crazy lives" actress Asher Keddie and artist Vincent Fantauzzo manage to find peace in art.
So, when Fantauzzo won the People's Choice in the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW, Fantauzzo called it "a celebration of us".
"We understand and support each other," Fantauzzo said yesterday.
The artist also won the People's Choice in 2008 and 2009 with portraits of actors Heath Ledger and child actor Brandon Walters from Baz Luhrmann's film Australia.
Fantauzzo phoned Keddie at their Melbourne home so she could hear AGNSW director Michael Brand announce the prize yesterday.
"I rang her (on the mobile) and said 'Keep quiet'," the artist said.
"She's like, 'I hope I don't trip over the dog'.
"She said she was going to cook me an amazing dinner."
Dr Brand said 21,141 people voted in the People's Choice and that Fantauzzo was the "overwhelming winner".
His portrait, titled Love Face, is done in Fantauzzo's signature realist style.
This year's Archibald Prize was accompanied by a new portrait prize for school-aged artists called the Young Archie, which now will feature alongside the Archibald Prize every year.
"We're not quite sure why it took us 92 years to work out that young artists needed a prize, too," Dr Brand said.
Liam Williamson, seven, of Peakhurst won the the five-to-eight-year-old category with a drawing of his dad Marty lying on the couch.
His mother Christine said Liam had been drawing, sketching and inventing since he was little.
"The beauty of his work is it's so natural. It's just whatever comes into his mind," she said.
Archibald Hyles, 10, who lives on a property between Yass and Gundagai, won the nine-to-12-year-old category with a painting of his dad Richard.
Max Fontaine, 13, a student at Waverley College, drew his little sister to win the 13-to-15-year-old category, while Angela Yang, 17, of Riverwood, won the 16 to 18-year-old category with an immaculate drawing of her neighbour Frank.