Archibald Prize: The Winner

Peter Wegner, Portrait of Guy Warren at 100 (2021)

This year, the Archibald Prize is celebrating it’s 100th year.

The Archibald Prize is awarded by the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) each year, chosen by the galleries Board of Trustees. The prize of $100,000 is awarded, in the terms of the will of the late JF Archibald to the best portrait ‘preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia during the 12 months preceding the date fixed by the Trustees for sending in the pictures’.

In it’s 100th year it’s been won by Melbourne artist Peter Wegner who painted a portrait of Guy Warren. It was Wegner’s sixth time entering and being shortlisted for the prize. Wegner painted the portrait as part of a series he’s been working on for 7 years in which he paints centurions. He says that it was just a coincidence that it coincided with the Archibald’s centenary as well, he just believes there is so much that can be learnt from the oldest people on the planet and wants to celebrate them.

Warren (the sitter for this years winner) is an artist himself and won the Archibald Prize back in 1985, for his portrait of the artist Bert Flugelman.

Wegner’s painting was one of 52 finalists, from 938 entries, and it was the first year the Archibald hit gender parity with exactly half of the works painted by women. It had previously come close with 49% in 2016.

To celebrate the centenary of the award, AGNSW has also put on another exhibition showing the highlights over the past 100 years called Archie 100. It includes not just the previous winners but also short-listed nominees. The curator of the exhibition, Natalie Wilson is also curator of Australian and Pacific art at AGNSW. She undertook years of research into over 6,000 portraits that have been entered and shortlisted for the prize over it’s history. The gallery also launched a national public appeal to locate 'lost' paintings. This is because the Archibald is not an aquisitional prize and so the works are now in libraries, galleries and museums throughout Australia and New Zealand. Some of that incredible quest is captured in the three-part ABC series Finding the Archibald, premiering June 15, linked here.

The Archibald Prize for 2021 is on display at the AGNSW until the 26th September.

Here is the link to the photos of all the previous winners.