Portrait of Behrouz Boochani wins Archibald Prize people's choice award

Kurdish-Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani has never stepped foot in Australia and he will never see his arresting portrait hung on the walls of the Art Gallery of NSW.

Artist Angus McDonald says the public's deep respect and admiration for Boochani, forged during his tireless six-year struggle against the federal government's mandatory offshore detention policy, is why his portrait has been crowned people's choice in 2020 Archibald Prize.

Angus McDonald's Behrouz Boochani. Credit: Mim Stirling

"He truly is an inspirational and exceptional man," the artist said. "The most valuable thing for me has been getting to know him, working with him, collaborating, being able to call him a friend, and eventually being able to make this portrait. That whole experience has been very enriching for me. Winning the people's choice award has been an unexpected bonus that I share with Behrouz."

McDonald first made contact with Boochani in 2018, when he was creating a documentary about the detention centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, where Boochani was held. He approached Boochani to recite in Farsi a poem written about Manus Island for the film's closing sequence.

In January 2019, McDonald tried to visit Boochani just as parliament was set to vote on the medevac legislation, which sought to give doctors more say in emergency medical transfers of offshore asylum seekers to Australia. "I was seized at the airport by authorities and deported. I never made it to see him."

It was the following day that Boochani was awarded the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature for No Friend But the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison.

Angus McDonald with his winning portrait of Kurdish-Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani.Credit: Rhett Wyman

A non-fiction work written via secret text messages that detailed his life as an asylum seeker, it brought Boochani to broad public attention.

Ín July the New Zealand government gave Boochani refugee status, and McDonald stayed with him there for five days so he could sit for the portrait.

McDonald returned to his Lennox Head studios to paint Boochani over an intense period of three weeks, night and day, to make the April deadline for the Archibald Prize, glad of the extra time when the prize was delayed due to COVID-19.

"It's all I did. I was exhausted," McDonald recounts. "I spent a lot of time on the eyes, obviously, that's a haunting physical feature of him. He has such amazing eyes. After getting to understand his frame of mind I really wanted to show him as someone who is not afraid to look out. He's confident, he survived this incredible ordeal and he's okay. He's not an angry person. His experience on Manus didn't change him in that way."

McDonald said he was "thrilled and humbled" and considered the $3500 award a massive compliment for him as an artist. "Equally I think it's for Behrouz as well because he has made such a significant impact on our recent social history, despite not even setting foot on the mainland."

Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand said the powerful hyper-realistic portrait had challenged viewers from the start.

First awarded in 1988, the Archibald Prize people's choice is voted for by members of the public, with more than 13,000 votes cast in this year's prize.

Earlier this year, Vincent Namatjira became the first Indigenous artist to win the Archibald Prize with a portrait of himself and Adam Goodes titled Stand Strong for Who You Are.

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