Hello art thots, it’s Archibald Prize time again and this year’s competition is just peachy. I mean that quite literally.
The 52 finalists for this year were revealed on Thursday and there were some doozies. I say that as someone with little to no knowledge of art. But by God, you can tear fun colours and shapes out of my cold, dead hands.
While the big winner of the Archibald Prize isn’t announced until May 13, the Packing Room Prize has been awarded.
Basically, the prize is decided by the folks who work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It’s pretty nice actually: the staff who unpack and hang the art up for the exhibition get to choose the Packing Room winner.
And clearly there are some secret Our Flag Means Death stans working at the Art Gallery ‘cos this year’s winner was a portrait of Taika Waititi painted by Claus Stangl.
The portrait is very much giving 2014 Westfield cinema trip. We should really bring back those black plastic 3D glasses that everyone wore unironically.
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Stangl is also a finalist for the Archibald Prize. Proof that we should have more Taika Waititi everywhere, always.
Other Archibald Prize finalists included gorge portraits of Courtney Act, Brooke Boney and Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness.
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Another entry was a portrait of Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott, painted by Felix von Dallwitz.
It’s actually the second time von Dallwitz has painted Alcott for the Archibald.
Von Dallwitz said this portrait is aimed at capturing all of Alcot’s achievements over the last few years.
“I also think that when your friend is awarded Australian of the Year, they deserve to have a nice oil painting of them hanging in an institution or museum!” he said.
Valid!
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One of the absolute highlights of the collection was Benjamin Law’s bum. Yes, you read that right.
Law was painted by artist John Richardson and the result is absolutely gorgeous.
On Insta, Law described it as a “queer re-framing of Venus”.
“[It’s] a subversion of who gets to be object and subject, and a commentary on Asian masculinity, desire and sexuality,” he said.
“But mostly is about my butt.”
This? This is what I want from art.
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If you wanna suss the portraits in real life, they’re on display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney from May 14 to August 28. Just don’t forget your 3D glasses.
