6 days Ago By Linda Morris, Hannah Kennelly
Good morning, I’m Hannah and welcome to our 2025 coverage of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prize winners at the Art Gallery of NSW. Archibald Prize finalists at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney. Credit: Janie Barrett These are three of the most coveted prizes in the Australian art world and we are expecting winners to be announced from noon today.
The $100,000 103-year-old Archibald Prize for portraiture was first awarded in 1921. This year it attracted 904 entries. Just over one-third of the 57 entries are first-time nominees.
Twenty-two are portraits of fellow artists and there are 12 self-portraits. Six subjects are from the stage and screen, three from the world of media and journalism, and three from music. A gritty portrait of city councillor Yvonne Weldon is the lone pollie’s portrait to grace the gallery walls.
The exhibition of the prize finalists opens to the public tomorrow and continues until August 17. It will then tour venues in NSW and Victoria. Artists Tony Albert and Caroline Rothwell and the nine trustees of the board of the Art Gallery of NSW have one vote each.
This year trustees include new appointees – former NSW arts minister Peter Collins, filmmaker Emile Sherman and chair Michael Rose, who replaced David Gonski in January. Traditionally, shortlists are collated before announcement day and the trustees gather the morning of the announcement to vote for a winner. Finalists nervously await the potentially life-changing morning call.
For all but one, the hoped-for call will not come. The $100,000 prize brings fame, and a modest house deposit, but also a different kind of pressure, as 2022 winner Blak Douglas explains here . As we await the announcement, let’s recap the rules of the Archibald Prize.
These are spelt out in the bequest of benefactor J. F. Archibald , the first editor of the now-defunct The Bulletin magazine, who funded the prize.
Archibald Prize 2025 finalist, Linda Gold’s Still Standing and Fighting. Sitter: Neale Daniher. Credit: Art Gallery of New South Wales / Jenni Carter The Archibald Prize is awarded to the best portrait “preferentially” of some person “distinguished in art, letters, science or politics”.
The rules are therefore a little loose around the identity of the sitter, which has veered towards artists and self-portraits in recent years. Competition is open to an artist living in Australia and New Zealand during the 12 months preceding the entry date. In 1990 Sidney Nolan fell foul of this rule and was forced to withdraw his portrait of fellow artist Arthur Boyd after he failed to meet this residency requirement.
The work is also meant to be painted from life. That means at least one face-to-face sitting between sitter and artist. Linda Gold was grateful for the hour she got with former AFL football player and coach Neale Daniher, who has lost upper body movement to motor neurone disease.
He’s seated in his most comfortable pose in his high back chair wearing a scarf, beanie and Essendon socks. Good morning, I’m Hannah and welcome to our 2025 coverage of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prize winners at the Art Gallery of NSW. Archibald Prize finalists at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney.
Credit: Janie Barrett These are three of the most coveted prizes in the Australian art world and we are expecting winners to be announced from noon today. The $100,000 103-year-old Archibald Prize for portraiture was first awarded in 1921. This year it attracted 904 entries.
Just over one-third of the 57 entries are first-time nominees. Twenty-two are portraits of fellow artists and there are 12 self-portraits. Six subjects are from the stage and screen, three from the world of media and journalism, and three from music.
A gritty portrait of city councillor Yvonne Weldon is the lone pollie’s portrait to grace the gallery walls. The exhibition of the prize finalists opens to the public tomorrow and continues until August 17. It will then tour venues in NSW and Victoria.
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