Portrait of an artist with her eyes on the big Archibald Prize

The who’s who of the art world have begun ferrying their work to the Art Gallery of NSW for the 100th Archibald Prize, including two-time finalist Zoe Young.

Artist Zoe Young with her entry for the 100th Archibald Prize loaded on the back of her ute at her home in Bowral, NSW. Picture: John Feder

Artist Zoe Young is determined to maintain the mystique around the portrait she will enter into the 100th Archibald Prize, right up until the moment of reveal.

Speaking from her rural property in Bowral near Wollongong in regional NSW, Young, 42, admitted that when it came to the tradition of being tight-lipped around entering the nation’s most famous portrait prize she would not be making an exception.

“I’m very superstitious and it compromises the potency of the work,” she said.

“There is a lot of folklore around the Archibald Prize of not revealing anything prior to having it submitted.

“It’s so competitive to get in. I’m using all the voodoo I can.”

The painter was ranked as a ­finalist in the prize twice before, for her portrait of childhood friend and Olympic snowboarder Torah Bright in 2014 and model Samantha Harris in 2016. She has also been hung in the Salon des Refuses, which takes the next 30 ranking submissions, three times.

Young, who originally trained in sculpture at the National Art School but has since become a painter primarily, said she had been competing in the prize since the start of her career, first entering when she was just 16.

“I did a portrait of my dad and they told me that they entered it and said the judges said it was really good but I was too young to go in the award. I don’t think he ­entered it at all.”

She said the prize, which normally has upwards of 1000 entries, with the top 50 finalists exhibited in the Art Gallery of NSW, was the premier art prize for Australian artists.

“It’s such a thing in Australia. You grow up drawing and if you have any sort of artist’s bent in painting everyone says to you when you grow up you’re going to enter the Archibald Prize. The ­Archibald is a childhood dream for so many painters.”

Young said she hoped this year’s portrait, which she will be transporting to the gallery next week, would make her a serious contender, though she admitted the 2021 intake was likely to be an unusual race due to the pandemic.

“Since COVID, I think they’re going to have a lot of entries because everyone will be entering,” she said. “Our whole industry has become susceptible to people who started painting during COVID.

“But they never went to art school and (are) people who don’t know about the journey and how long it takes you to develop yourself as an artist.

“This year could be one of the highest entries because there are so many people who had time because they were hanging out on JobKeeper.”

The Archibald Prize is awarded to the best portrait “preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics”, and was established in 1921 with an endowment from the publisher JF Archibald.

Submissions began being delivered this week. The prize winner will be announced on June 4.