Archibald Prize makes no allowance for social distancing

The controversial portrait prize insists on artists and subjects meeting face to face

Brisbane artist Monica Rohan in her home studio with her portrait of fellow artist Lucy Culliton. Picture: Glenn Hunt

Painted from life. That’s the cardinal rule of the nation’s most-watched art award, the Archibald Prize. But how do an artist and their subject go about a portrait-sitting during a pandemic?

While Australians everywhere have learned to keep a distance and conduct their social lives via video, the Art Gallery of NSW insists that artists and subjects must have met in person at least once.

The AGNSW will begin ­accepting entries for the Archibald Prize on Monday, and has extended the entry period to two weeks. The $100,000 prize was to have been awarded in May but was pushed back to September because of the lockdown.

But the gallery has not relaxed the painted-from-life rule. Artists may use video calls and take photographs for reference, but at least one sitting must be in person and “cannot be via video link”.

Another portraiture prize, the $30,000 Portia Geach Memorial Award for women artists, has adapted its rules to allow “virtual” sittings on Zoom or FaceTime.

Brisbane artist Monica Rohan is preparing to enter the Archibald with her portrait of fellow artist Lucy Culliton, which she painted after making sketches and photographs of Culliton at her rural property in NSW, before the lockdown. She said painting a portrait via Zoom was possible but would be challenging.

“It is important to meet with someone, and get a sense of who they are and how they present themselves,” she said.

Another artist preparing her Archibald entry, Tsering Hannaford, has been in quarantine at her home in Adelaide for the past two weeks. She will enter a self-portrait, which she painted using two mirrors to create the impression of “being an onlooker, looking at yourself”.

In a separate project, Hannaford is about to make her first ­attempt of painting a portrait via Zoom of a Swedish politician, Carl Fredrik Graf.

Archibald curator Anne Ryan said the rules stipulated that artists must have at least one live sitting in person with their subject.

“It is the expectation of the gallery that artists will adhere to these terms,” she said. “Drawing and painting from life in front of a subject is invaluable in enabling an artist to fully capture a likeness.”

A new prize awarded for the first time this year, the $75,000 Darling Portrait Prize, also ­requires portraits to be “based on a live sitting or study from life”. The prize exhibition is on display at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.

Australia’s richest prize for portraiture, the Doug Moran ­National Portrait Prize worth $150,000, was cancelled this year because of the pandemic.