‘It’s surreal’: Julia Gutman wins Archibald Prize for portrait of singer Montaigne

Julia Gutman was in the shower around 8am on Friday, when the call came that she had won the 2023 Archibald Prize with a portrait of her friend, singer-songwriter Jessica Cerro, better known by her stage name Montaigne.

The two had been former flat mates in a share house in Sydney’s inner west in Annandale, and Gutman, 29, one of the youngest winners of the 102-year-old prize, called back, but it went to the Art Gallery of NSW’s front desk.

“I thought maybe I had just left something behind like an umbrella,” said the artist who had dreamed of winning the Archibald since she was 12.

Julia Gutman wins the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW with her portrait titled ‘Head in the sky, feet on the ground’ of her friend Jess Cerro better known as singer Montaigne,Credit: Wolter Peeters

When she did get to speak to Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand who told her she had won, she called her friend and one-time Eurovision star Montaigne to tell her.

“I was non-verbal and I wanted her to have a chance to be non-verbal too, but she is a Eurovision entrant, she’s used to this sort of thing,” Gutman said.

Gutman slipped on a dress she’d bought to wear to her 30th birthday this weekend, and hotfooted it straight to the Art Gallery of NSW where she was awarded the nation’s most famous art prize hours later.

“I was really honoured to be chosen as a finalist let alone win this...I’m not going to break into song, but it is really surreal,” said Gutman on receiving the honour. She is no longer between Sydney share houses, but on her way to residencies in Italy, Denmark and Miami, even before Friday’s $100,000 Archibald windfall.

Her win also marks the 13th time the Archibald Prize has been awarded to a woman since it began in 1921.

Gutman had worked closely with Cerro, a musician, Twitch streamer and soccer player on the portrait, Head in the Sky, Feet on the Ground with the singer’s position intending to mimic Egon Schiele’s 1917 Seated Woman with Bent Knees.

“I thought it was a beautiful way to capture Jess who is queer and dresses in this way that plays with gender. It’s a soft angular pose, but there’s an in-between-ness to it,” Gutman said.

She sewed second-hand textiles onto the giant canvas too, of second hand objects: An old apron she used to wear as an art teacher, an old pair of jeans and an old woollen blanket.

“We worked on it together...Knowing someone as well as I know Jess it was easy to paint,” she said.

Archibald Prize 2023 winner Julia Gutman’s portrait of Montaigne, Head in the sky, Feet on the Ground.

Hundreds of people had gathered at the Art Gallery for the announcement of the 2023 winners of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes.

The $50,000 Wynne Prize for best landscape painting of Australian scenery or figurative sculpture went to Zaachariaha Fielding for Inma, which depicts the sounds of Mimili, a community in the eastern part of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. The Wynne Prize is Australia’s oldest art prize, awarded since 1897.

Archibald Prize winner Julia Gutman.Credit: Renee Nowytarger

Unlike Gutman, Fielding, who is the lead vocalist of the music duo Electric Fields, burst into song.

“I am humbled and honoured to be a part of this,” Fielding said.

Fielding grew up in Mimili and turned to art in 2019 after work as a musician dried up during COVID lockdowns. He is also part of the APY Lands Art Centre Collective’s Adelaide Centre whose 28 works for an upcoming National Gallery of Australia exhibition are currently subject to an independent review over the issue of creative control. The artist declined to comment.

The NGA has appointed Melbourne barrister Colin Golvan and Sydney lawyer Shane Simpson to determine whether exhibition paintings were under the creative control of the artists. They have yet to report their findings.

The probe follows allegations published by The Australian that studio assistants had a role in the creation of Indigenous artwork at APY Lands Art Centre Collective’s Adelaide centre in a way that might have interfered with or overruled the artists’ visions.

The $40,000 Sulman Prize awarded to the best genre painting, subject painting or mural went to Doris Bush Nungarrayi for Mamunya ngalyananyi (Monster coming). The portrait depicts dozens of haunting spirits known as Mamus or “cheeky ones”, as Nungarrayi, who was born in Ikuntji/Haasts Bluff, 250 kilometres west of Mparntwe/Alice Springs, calls them.

Zaachariaha Fielding’s Inma.

Gutman is the 100th winner of the $100,000 Archibald Prize since it was first awarded in 1921. Although this is the year 102 of the prize, there were two years, 1964 and 1980, when the Archibald judges did not award a winner because none were deemed worthy of the prize money.

A total of 949 entries were received for the Archibald this year, the second-highest total in history after 2020, the year of COVID lockdown. Forty per cent of the finalists were first time entrants.

For the first time in its history, there were more works by women, (30) compared to men (27) chosen as the 57 finalists.

This year also has the highest number of finalist works by Aboriginal artists, 38 across the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes.

Last week, first-time Archibald entrant Andrea Huelin won the 2023 Packing Room Prize with a portrait of Melbourne-based New Zealand-born comedian Cal Wilson.For the first time since it was introduced in 1991, the Packing Room Prize winner was selected by a panel of three packers, including two women, Monica Rudhar and Alexis Wildman.

Doris Bush Nungarrayi’s Mamunya ngalyananyi (Monster coming)

The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman exhibitions open on Saturday, May 6 at the Art Gallery of NSW and continue until September 3.