Storrier wins Archibald with self-portrait sans face

IT'S one thing to teach a dog to sit. In artistic parlance, it's quite another. Such was the challenge for artist Tim Storrier.

Tim Storrier

IT'S one thing to teach a dog to sit. In artistic parlance, however, it's quite another. Such was the challenge that presented itself to veteran artist Tim Storrier, whose "faceless" self-portrait featuring his pet dog was yesterday announced the winner of this year's Archibald Prize.

Pooch in tow, the 52-year-old accepted the $75,000 prize for his painting Histrionic Wayfarer (after Bosch), saying he owed a debt of gratitude to Smudge, the seven-year-old longnose fox terrier he rescued from the pound four years ago.

"I was initially reluctant to put the dog in the painting," the Bathurst artist said. "It's a bit like a cheap trick. But it was emotionally accurate from my point of view. They were going to have her put down when we got her. Smudge is ever loyal and never critical."

The difficulties in getting Smudge to sit still were many, said the artist, who is best known for his Burning Logs series of paintings. "Dogs are very aware of their profile . . . she kept turning her head. Keeping her still was tough."

Storrier's work, based loosely on Hieronymus Bosch's small, octagonal work The Wayfarer, features a "faceless" (the artist's countenance can be found on a piece of paper blowing in the wind) Tin Tin-like character carrying on his back his worldly possessions - atop of which sits Smudge.

"It's a pastiche of experience; a self-portrait only in a mythical way. It features all the accoutrements of a disaster," he added.

Storrier, who has entered the Archibald three times and been hung twice, was yesterday reluctant to give too much weight to the notion of a faceless artist, saying only that the painting's detached countenance had more to do with vanity than anything more sinister.

"I don't particularly like to paint my own face. Simple as that," he said. "It's part of a series I've done, and none of them have faces."

The AGNSW board of trustees, which judges the award, this year increased the prizemoney to $75,000 from $50,000. Board president Steven Lowy said Storrier was a worthy winner.

"It's a wonderful painting of him, by him, and it captured the minds of the trustees," he said. "Ultimately quality comes to the top. Tim is a very experienced artist."

Imants Tillers was announced the winner of the $35,000 Wynne prize for landscape painting for Waterfall (After Williams), while the $30,000 Sulman Prize was won by Nigel Milsom for his Judo House Part 4 (Golden Mud).

A total of 839 works by some of Australia's best-known artists, including last year's winner Ben Quilty and Garry Shead, were submitted for the Archibald Prize in its 91st year.