Inner beauty shines through in Kennedy Prize winning portrait of late drag queen Tootsie

An oil painting of a drag performer who passed away shortly after its completion has won SA’s $25,000 Kennedy Prize.

2019 Kennedy Prize winner Tootsie, Just an Old Drag Queen (detail). Oil painting on canvas by Melbourne artist Jaq Grantford.

An intimate portrait of a now deceased, iconic Melbourne drag performer known as Tootsie has won South Australia’s $25,000 Kennedy Prize for art with a theme of “beauty”.

Victorian artist Jaq Grantford painted 84-year-old Tootsie, whose real name was Ken Atherton, wearing make-up, a beanie and dressing gown at his home shortly before he died in September last year.

“I can’t begin to express how overjoyed I am,” Ms Grantford said.

“The Tootsie work has so much meaning for me. He was jailed for being gay and is now being celebrated for his beauty.”

The Kennedy Prize is a national visual art competition which honours the legacy of its founder, SA philanthropist and business identity Robert Kennedy.

Tootsie, Just an Old Drag Queen. Oil painting on canvas by Melbourne artist Jaq Grantford.

The judges, Nicole Willis, Leanne Michalik and last year’s winner Angus Hamra, said they were “amazed” by how the oil painting, titled Tootsie, Just an Old Drag Queen, drew their attention on several levels.

“It addresses the theme of beauty by honestly depicting life as an outsider. Technically, the artist conveyed an intimacy through their attention to light and detail,” Mr Hamra said.

“For us, the work managed to capture time in a specific moment, whilst giving us an insight into the hard but beautiful life their subject had lived.”

Mr Atherton had a difficult start to his adult life. At 18, he found his mother’s body, just two years after his twin brother had died. At 20, he was convicted of the then crime of being homosexual, and spent two years in jail.

It was not until the age of 62 that he began performing in drag, and Tootsie became an icon as part of Melbourne’s original Social Identity Show in the mid-1990s.

Ms Grantford’s painting of Tootsie was also a finalist in WA’s Black Swan Prize for portraiture last year.

Kennedy Prize finalists are on display at the Royal South Australian Society of Arts in the Institute Building, city, until September 15.

Originally published as Inner beauty shines through in Kennedy Prize winning portrait of late drag queen Tootsie