Why is the archibald prize popular

An ambitious, progressive, nationalistic and aspiring journalist, in , he launched the weekly news journal, The Bulletin. Renowned for its strident patriotism, with writers like Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson, the journal struggled in its early years and ran into financial difficulties that resulted in Archibald's imprisonment for failing to pay damages after losing a libel case. After his release he travelled to England, returning to Sydney fired-up with enthusiasm for his republican ideals.

The Bulletin then flourished and when Archibald died in , he did so a relatively wealthy man. Perhaps as a sign of his republican views, he left in his will a bequest to the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales then known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales of one-tenth of his estate for the establishment of an annual prize to be judged by the Trustees.

There are two crucial conditions in this clause in Archibald's will that have, I believe, ensured the prize's tenacious longevity and success. Firstly, that the prize was to be judged not by curators, art historians, critics or other such professionals but by the members of the Board of Trustees, that is, essentially lay men or women; and secondly, that the portrait had to be painted in the 12 months leading up to the award.

The subjects, therefore, were always going to be people and personalities of our place and our time. The Archibald Prize has thus become not only a great slice of Australian art history but also a fascinating glimpse into Australian social history. The first prize in was awarded to the artist William Beckwith Billy McInnes who went on to win no less than seven times for a portrait of the Melbourne architect Harold Desbrowe Annear. However, McInnes attracted some criticism in when he won with his portrait of a certain Miss Collins, the daughter of an employee of the Victorian State Parliament, because she was not, understandably, considered to be 'distinguished in art, letters, science or politics'.

The whole genre of portraiture, at least on the evidence of the Archibald Prize, in the 's, 30's and 40's retained a generally conservative stylistic tradition and the subjects were also generally 'worthy' sitters.

The artist must have lived in Australia for at least one year. The Archibald Prize is awarded every year. Dargie's painting which won in had been painted when he was an official war artist during World War 2 in Syria.

The ship carrying the painting back to Australia sank and the painting was underwater for some time. In the trustees selected works for entry, instead of displaying all the entries.

Less than a third of the entries were chosen for exhibition. Dargie also won prize with a portrait of Australia's celebrated Aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira. The portrait was done while the Namatjira was visiting Sydney from the Central Desert. His painting, a striking departure for the Archibald, also exposed an uneasiness among some connoisseurs about modernism. The painting ended up in court, accused of being a caricature. Dargie was not done, by the way.

He won again in , his eighth Archibald. So yes, times change, if slowly. After Heysen, there have been only nine other women named Archibald winners, five in the past 20 years. Indigenous faces began to appear more regularly too — as subjects — but it took 99 years of competition for an Aboriginal painter to actually win.

For better or worse, both the painting and the reactions tell a story about Australia in Various characters ricochet through the years. The Wynne Prize has been notoriously male-dominated. The real spectacle of the Archibald Portrait Prize emerges behind the scenes. Prizes are a common feature on the cultural economy landscape. In Australia there is the famous Archibald Prize for portraiture, there are numerous prizes for literature and poetry, the AFI Awards in film….

He hung the painting next to the ladies toilet with a vase of….