'This art prize is a distasteful mess'

Each year, trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW select their finalists for the Archibald Prize. And each year, art critic Christopher Allen gives it a royal slagging off. 

Each year, trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW select their finalists for the Archibald Prize. And each year, art critic Christopher Allen gives it a royal slagging off. 

Finalists for the 2022 Archibald Prize were revealed at the Art Gallery of NSW on Thursday morning.

52 portraits were selected from 819 entries. Amongst the works are a throng of famous faces, including paintings of Hugh Jackman and his wife Deborra-lee Furness by Paul Newtown, drag queen Courtney Act in a double portrait with alter ego Shane Jenek, by Kim Leutwyler, Mount Druitt drill pioneers OneFour by Daniel Boyd and Australian of the Year Dylan Allcott. 

Claus Stangl's portrait of Māori filmmaker Taika Waititi took out the Packing Room Prize. The $3000 prize is awarded by head packer, Brett Cuthberson, who announced he will be retiring from the gallery after more than 40 years. Waititi described the honour as “an absolute kick in the baramundies for Ockers.” 

Claus Stangl: 'Taika Waititi' Archibald Prize 2022 finalist, Claus Stangl 'Taika Waititi', acrylic on canvas, 245 x 195.1 cm © the artist, image © AGNSW, Felicity Jenkins

As is tradition, renowned art Christopher Allen has cast his critical eye over The Archibald, which he once described as a “freak show for a visually illiterate audience.” 

“The extreme disparity between portraits selected for the Archibald Prize in recent years recalls the old saying about a camel being a horse designed by a committee – but it’s actually much worse than that,” writes Allen. “If anything, it reminds me of the appalling tourists I saw in Cyprus a few years ago – bloated and sunburnt Putin loyalists – piling a whole breakfast smorgasbord onto a single plate, with chocolate cake balanced on fried eggs and bacon.”

The curatorial rationale of the trustees is a persistent gripe for Allen. Who writes that the art world powers that be “deliberately seek disparity and cacophony” resulting in a “distasteful mess.” 

Allen notes that many fine portraits of the 819 entries will be omitted, only to "turn up in other shows such as the Salon des refuses or the Portia Geach”, both held at the S.H. Ervin Gallery in Miller’s Point. 

Of those that have made it, there are few that should be "taken seriously." Among them, Keith Burt’s portrait of fellow painter Bridie Gillman and Tsering Hannaford’s portrait of Pitjantjatjara artist and activist Sally Scales. Though he has his grievances, finding Burt’s “a little bloodless,” and Hannaford’s “rather suffocating.”

The Oz and Allen share a favourite in the self-portrait by Wendy Sharpe, presented in a found antique frame. “Sharpe is a talented painter, and she benefits from the discipline of the small frame, creating a moving and intense image of herself emerging from the shadows, with a dream-like apparition over her shoulder." 

Allen tips his hat to Paul Newtown’s painting of Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness, Noel McKenna’s “eccentric” painting of art collector Patrick Corrigan, Vincent Namatjira’s self-portrait with a dingo, Katherine Hattam’s painting of novelist Helen Garner and Yoshio Jonjo’s portrait of former Channel V host Yumi Stynes. 

For Allen, one painting is a cut above the rest: Robert Hannaford’s ‘Hirsute self-portrait', which he believes "shows up the paper-thin weakness" of the other finalists. 

Hannaford is a stalwart of The Archibald, and has been a finalist 26 times. ‘Hirstute self-portrait’ was painted whilst Hannaford was in recovery from a brain injury, caused by the after-affects of a cancer treatment 15 years prior. “The injury was to the visual cortex – a special challenge for a painter. The experience has helped me to see the world freshly and not to take my vision for granted,” Hannaford says.

Robert Hannaford: 'Hirsute', self-portrait Archibald Prize 2022 finalist, Robert Hannaford 'Hirsute' self-portrait, oil on canvas, 121.3 x 91.5 cm © the artist, image © AGNSW, Jenni Carter

“This picture, a statement of his virtuosity, but also his courage and persistence in the face of severe illness, has a conviction that no other picture in this exhibition achieves,” writes Allen. "It reminds us of the shameful injustice done to Hannaford in 2018 when his fine and moving self-portrait was overlooked in favour of a work of obvious and embarrassing mediocrity." The award was given to Yvette Coppersmith for her self portrait. 

The $100,00 Archibald Prize is announced on May 13, with the exhibition open to the public from May 14.