2024 Archibald Prize: Laura Jones’s ‘bold but tender’ portrait of Tim Winton wins

Sydney artist Laura Jones admits a ‘glitch’ delayed the news that she’d won the nation’s most celebrated award with her ‘bold but tender’ painting of Tim Winton.

Archibald Prize winner Laura Jones pictured with her portrait of Tim Winton. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

A “phone glitch” meant Laura Jones initially missed a call from Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand on Friday morning, aimed at telling the Sydney artist she had won the 2024 Archibald Prize.

Jones garnered the $100,000 prize – the nation’s most celebrated, if often contentious portraiture award – with her “bold but tender” painting of Cloudstreet author and environmentalist Tim Winton, and Brand had been ringing to tell her the good news.

“I missed a call,’’ Jones admitted to The Weekend Australian. Due to the phone malfunction, “I only realised it was him (Brand) when he called back again.’’

A four-time Archibald finalist, Ms Jones said her victory was “such an incredible thrill” and that she was “shaking life a leaf’’ when she addressed the large media throng who had gathered to hear the official announcement at the AGNSW on Friday.

“I am shocked and humbled to be chosen as the winner. This is a life-changing moment for me,’’ she said.

The Sulman Prize for genre painting was won by APY Lands veteran artist Naomi Kantjurimy for her black and white work, Minyma mamu tjuta.

Another Indigenous painter Djakanju Yunupingu from Yirrkala in the Northern Territory won the Wynne landscape prize for her painting Nyalala gurmilili, making the prize haul a clean sweep for women artists.

Laura Jones’s portrait of Tim Winton.

Jones, a committed environmentalist, thanked her media-shy subject, Winton, who was not at the gallery and who admitted in a statement he was “a very reluctant sitter’’. The four-time Miles Franklin Award winning novelist said he agreed to sit for Jones after seeing her “beautiful and tragic” paintings depicting coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef.

He said: “It was clear we had some pressing (environmental) concerns in common … so I ended up agreeing to sit for her … This is lovely news. I’m thrilled for Laura.’’

Jones said after Winton “generously” agreed to be painted for the prize, she had just one afternoon in Fremantle, Western Australia, to capture his likeness. “I stared at him very intently for the two hours,’’ she joked.

Brand said that Jones – who was also a finalist in the 2024 Sulman Prize, and who appears in a Daniel Kim portrait shortlisted for the 2024 Archibald – was “overwhelmed” when she took his call.

He said her painting of Winton, which was chosen from 1005 entries, was “a most deserving winner’’, adding: “Laura’s bold but tender depiction of Tim’s face captures his vulnerability, while his figure melds into the background of wonderful, watery brushstrokes.’’

Outgoing president of the AGNSW board of trustees, David Gonski, said the trustees “unanimously” awarded Jones’s painting the Archibald Prize.

APY Lands elder Kantjuriny took out the Sulman Prize with her work, Minyma mamu tjuta, which depicts good and bad spirits which take varied forms. Kantjuriny said through a spokesperson she had painted the winning work to honour the senior women she started painting with 30 years ago.

Yunupingu is from Yirrkala in the Northern Territory, and snared the Wynne prize with her imposing 2.6m high bark painting, Nyalala gurmilili. It’s the first bark painting to win this prize.

Founded in 1921, the Archibald is awarded annually to the best portrait “preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in arts, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’’.

The Archibald Prize finalists 2024

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The winner is decided by Art Gallery of NSW Trustees and to qualify, entries must have been painted in the past year from at least one live sitting.

Ahead of Friday’s announcement, the bumper crop of entries was whittled down to 57 Archibald finalists including Shaun Gladwell’s symbolist portrait of jailed activist Julian Assange, Yoshio Honjo’s samurai-like rendering of fashion designer Akira Isogawa and Kirsty Neilson’s sombre portrait of TV presenter Cheng Lei, who was detained in China for three years.

Shaun Gladwell’s portrait of Julian Assange.

Kirsty Neilson’s ‘Cheng Lei after China’ was short-listed.

Also short-listed were paintings of Matildas forward Cortnee Vine, singer Missy Higgins, Indigenous leader Marcia Langton and sexual assault campaigner Chanel Contos.

A portrait of well-known artist Robert Hannaford by his daughter Tsering Hannaford also made the finalists’ cut. Robert Hannaford, a high-profile painter, has been an Archibald finalist 27 times, without winning the prize. He has won the People’s Choice award three times.

Nick Stathopoulos’ portrait of David Stratton, titled The Last Picture Show.

Another finalist, Nick Stathopoulos, created a pensive portrait of The Australian’s recently retired film critic, David Stratton – who stepped down due to ill health – called The Last Picture Show.

Winners of the Wynne landscape prize and Sulman genre award were also due to be announced on Friday, while the $3,000 Packing Room Prize was last week won by murals artist Matt Adnate, for his largely spray-painted portrait of Indigenous rapper Baker Boy.

The Archibald winner and finalists will now go on display at the AGNSW, before touring to other NSW galleries and to the Northern Territory.