Kyle Sandilands slams ‘hideous’ Archibald Prize portrait of him

Kyle Sandilands has revealed how he really felt about a portrait of him that was submitted for the Archibald Prize in 2008.

Kyle Sandilands has revealed how he really felt about a portrait of him that was submitted for the Archibald Prize.

The radio star made the remarks during an interview with Rachel Griffiths who is hosting a new three-part series on the ABC called Finding the Archibald about the history of the arts prize.

“I’ve been painted for an Archibald Prize before,” Kyle said on KIIS FM. “Didn’t win it, mind you.”

“I’ve seen the painting of you,” Griffiths said. “It’s pretty unspeakably bad.”

The Archibald Prize portrait of radio personality Kyle Sandilands.

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The painting was done by Arith Mohamad and was entered in the 2008 Archibald Prize.

“It’s hideous,” Kyle said. “They painted me like a king from the olden days. When I saw the painting, the guy was like, ‘this will win me the Archibald’. I knew immediately, no it won’t.”

The painting now lives in the basement of Kyle’s manager, Bruno Bouchet.

Kyle's portrait now lives in his manager's basement. Picture: Bruno Bouchet

Rachel Griffiths told Kyle that the portrait of him was “never a contender”. Instead, the top honour in 2008 went to artist Del Kathryn Barton for her painting, You are what is most beautiful about me, a self portrait with Kell and Arella.

Martin Ball’s portrait of Neil Finn won the Packing Room Prize that year and Vincent Fantauzzo’s portrait of Heath Ledger won the People’s Choice Award.

2008 Archibald Prize winner.

Finding The Archibald starts tonight.

Artist Martin Ball with his winning portrait of Neil Finn.

Artist Vincent Fantauzzo with his winning portrait of late friend and actor Heath Ledger.

Finding The Archibald starts tonight at 8.30pm on ABC and ABC iview