Artist as Ardern lands Archibald Prize for Yvette Coppersmith

Yvette Coppersmith’s self-portrait, which channels the NZ PM Jacinda Ardern, has won the Archibald Prize.

Yvette Coppersmith with her Archibald-winning self-portrait at the Art Gallery of NSW yesterday. Picture: Tim Hunter

When Jacinda Ardern politely declined to have her portrait painted for the Archibald Prize, Melbourne artist Yvette Coppersmith turned the brush on herself.

Her self-portrait, which channels the New Zealand Prime Minister and the glamorous 1920s portraits by artist George Lambert, has won the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW.

In the absence of Ms Ardern, Coppersmith painted herself in a prime ministerial “power pose”, wearing a leopard-skin coat and set against gold drapery.

Self-portrait after George Lambert won Coppersmith $100,000 — and a surprise phone call of congratulations from across the Tasman. “What an amazing achievement,” Ms Ardern told Coppersmith in a moment captured by Sky News. “What an ­incredible piece, your work is ­absolutely phenomenal.”

Coppersmith said that as Ms Ardern was not available to sit for a portrait, she painted herself “as you”. Ms Ardern replied: “There is a big piece of me now that thinks, If I had sat for you, you wouldn’t have produced that beautiful piece, so maybe it’s all worked out.”

An Archibald finalist last year with a portrait of Gillian Triggs, Coppersmith beat a field of high-profile artists — and a gallery of famous faces — to take the ­nation’s best-known art prize.

The Archibald Prize exhibition opens today, with portraits of actors Guy Pearce (by Anne Middleton) and David Wenham (Jordan Richardson) and musicians Courtney Barnett (Melissa Grisancich) and Jimmy Barnes, whose portrait by Jamie Preisz won the Packing Room Prize.

Gallery director Michael Brand said there was almost twice as many self-portraits compared with last year, with entries from Del Kathryn Barton, Robert Hannaford, and Nicholas Harding among others. One of the original 58 finalists, a self-portrait by indigenous artist Tiger Yaltangki, was withdrawn after a request from his family. The artist from the APY Lands is awaiting a court decision on charges relating to an incident in 2016, a spokeswoman for the family said.

Coppersmith, who painted her first self-portrait in oils when she was 17, said she had worked on an earlier version of her Archibald entry but wasn’t happy with the pose. Her winning portrait was painted in just a week, and “I was drying it with heaters overnight”.

The Archibald is judged by the AGNSW board of trustees, led by president David Gonski. Only 10 of the 11 trustees met for yesterday’s final vote, after former AMP chairwoman Catherine Brenner stepped aside amid revelations at the banking royal commission.

Yukultji Napangati was named winner of the Wynne Prize, Kaylene Whiskey won the Sulman Prize, and Vincent Namatjira was highly commended in the Archibald.