Actor Gary McDonald, whose portrait by Paul Jackson was another Archibald finalist (and my personal favourite) |
While I’m on the Archibald Prize, the Art Gallery of NSW now has images of all the finalists available on its website here. The winner was Marcus Wills’ work The Paul Juraszek Monolith (after Marcus Gheeraerts), which I don’t like at all (although the reproduction on the AGNSW website is so muddy you can’t get a real impresson of it).
The Archibald is hardly the epitome of great Australian art, but it’s certainly our highest profile art prize. Let’s conduct our very own Club Troppo open judging panel. Which one of the finalists would you give the Archibald?
It’s very hard to judge without looking at the originals, but – though I note you don’t like it I think the picture of Kirby is quite striking. And the one I find the most psychologically compelling is of Ken Unsworth.
I thought the winner was a great painting especially when viewed up close, although I question it as a portrait.
My 4 month old son got very excited about the Gary McDonald one. I don’t really know which I would pick though. but both the winner and the Gary McDonald one were up there.