Portraiture

In Conversation: The Lester Prize judges 2020

tanya.sticca@artgallery.wa.gov.au — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 04:07:20 +0000

In Conversation: The Lester Prize judges 2020

Winner | The Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture 2020 – Serena Cowie The conversation (detail). Subject: Maria Arvanitis and Alexandra Perrott. Oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm.

tanya.sticca@a… Mon 09/11/2020 - 12:07pm

9 November 2020

One of Australia’s most prestigious and anticipated portraiture prizes returns to AGWA from 31 October to 29 November.

A style that exhibits the very fundamentals of the human condition, from the heroic to the despicable, the humble and deplorable, the principled and the fallen – portraiture allows us to understand not only the subject but ourselves.

The Lester Prize is an opportunity to truly celebrate the talent and vision from 40 of Australia’s most exceptional portraiture artists, right here at AGWA.

The individuals tasked with deciding who takes home a share of nearly $85,000 prize pool are AGWA’s Guest Artistic Director Ian Strange, Art Historian and Professor Dr. Clarissa Ball and Director of John Curtin Gallery Chris Malcolm.

A decision certainly not made lightly, we caught up with this year’s panel to understand just what they look for in a portrait, the significance of the style and how their individual experiences shape that very first glance at a piece.

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Ian Strange – Guest Artistic Director, Art Gallery of Western Australia

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In what way does personal identity and experience come into your approach when judging a piece? How do they affect your perceptions?

There’s a huge diversity in the material approaches and the artists as well and so while I have personal preferences in terms of technical ability and materials that I have an aesthetic preference for, I think coming in to judge is more about an open understanding and a more open dialogue about how you judge the works.

As Guest Artistic Director for AGWA, what do you think makes the Gallery a good match for exhibiting The Lester Prize?

The Lester Prize is an effective way of finding new artists, understanding new artists and bringing painting and portraiture into the Gallery. Portraiture is accessible but it also has such a long and fascinating history and I totally understand that fascination as well.

You mentioned about aesthetic preferences, what are your preferences in terms of style and approach?

There’s obviously technical excellence in painting which is always so impressive. It’s not always about being photo-realistic but also about material excellence and understanding the materiality of paint and approach.

I think you can always understand when an artist has lived with a painting and really worked on it, you can tell when someone has been really present with the creation of a painting I believe and there’s a level of material excellence in its delivery and confidence.

Ian Strange

Guest Artistic Director, Art Gallery of Western Australia

That’s something I really enjoy seeing is people pushing mediums in so many different directions.

I have a total bias for subject matter and how people can push form and lighting and create different tonal shifts and moods with paint as well. And particularly with the finalists this year there’s such a diversity with the painting of the works.

As someone who has a background as an artist, how do you balance viewing the artist’s intention and your natural response?

I’m wearing two hats in that regard and the two different perspectives that I can bring to it. One in that I do have a background as a practicing visual artist and as a painter but also in my role as the guest artistic director at the Gallery. I think normally when I look at paintings…I like to just quickly look at everything and really gauge what gives me a guttural reaction and what are the works I keep going back to.

So there’s some works that will – and I think a lot of people have these experiences in a gallery – just stand out to you immediately because of their colour, their composition, and then those works that are quieter you begin to like them and love them more.

Art is not a sport and you don’t have to make a didactic decision based on a binary of best or worst, which in itself isn’t true to the nature of art making. It’s about a conversation of judges and creating an understanding of preference.

Dr Clarissa Ball – Art Historian, Head of Fine Arts and History of Art UWA

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How do you feel your personal and professional experiences as an arts educator and historian shape the way you approach and respond to portraiture?

My viewing of portraits is nearly always informed by the art historical genre of portraiture. In one way or another, every portrait is situated within the history of portraiture and draws on the language of the genre to register individuality and to construct identity.

The act of painting a portrait is not just a negotiation with the traditional demands of likeness, psychological insight or seductive address, but more so is a negotiation between artifice and actuality.

Dr Clarissa Ball

Art Historian, Head of Fine Arts and History of Art UWA

Such painterly mediations and meditations sometimes put pressure on the traditional genre of portraiture and it is on those occasions, when a portrait sits both within and beyond the parameters of the genre, that I find the relationship between the portrait and the broader stream of art history most exciting and intriguing.

What are you most looking forward to about being a judge for The Lester Prize 2020?

Beyond looking forward to seeing the breadth of facture and stylistic approaches I am most interested in seeing if there are any common themes or leitmotifs being deployed in this unforgettable year of the virus.

In what ways do you think the parameters – both technically and figuratively – of portraiture have changed in recent years? How do you incorporate this into your judging process?

In the opening decades of the 21st century, two notable ‘trends’ have emerged. First, the standard rhetorics of description and depiction that have long informed a mimetic model of portraiture have given way to a depleted physicality and loss of self so that the very nature of what it is to be human is being called into question.

Attached to this, the growth in new media, digital imaging and bio-art is redefining our understanding of portraiture.

Secondly, the efficacy and authority of portraiture is being challenged by the representation of socially marginalised figures and, in turn, the dictates of conventionalised depiction both within and beyond portraiture are being overturned. Both of these developments pose uncomfortable questions for society at large and particularly for Australia with its concern for notions of national and cultural identity. Whether or not The Lester Prize entries suggest similar views remains to be seen.

What would be your advice to those exploring and seeking further understanding of portraiture?

Keep looking, keep seeing, and, most importantly, keep making portraits!

Chris Malcolm – Director, John Curtin Gallery

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Given your extensive experience, you’ve probably seen your fair share of competitions and portraiture talent – what makes The Lester Prize a unique competition?

I have been invited to judge many art prizes over the last 25 years and one of the interesting characteristics of The Lester Prize is that the finalists are selected by an independent panel of experts that assess all of the initial submissions without any supporting documentation.

This means choices are purely determined by the strengths of the artworks alone and independent of artist’s reputation.

Chris Malcolm

Director, John Curtin Gallery

How have the events of 2020 changed your approach to viewing art and, subsequently, your approach as a judge?

2020 has obliged all of us to reconsider everything about how we engage with everyone that our operation as a public art gallery and collection involves notably artists and our audiences. In some ways it has focused my mind more on how artists convey inner feelings which has had an interesting impact on my reading of the works in this year’s prize some of which are specifically addressing the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the artist.

How important is your first impression of a portrait? Can you talk us through what goes through your mind?

First impressions are always critical points of experience regardless of what that experience is.

Our senses are fine tuned to the form and expressions of the human face and not far behind are our perceptions of body language, so we have very sophisticated capacities to analyse and forensically consider each other just by what we see. This can be entangled with prejudices and preconceptions so it is always a challenge to try to leave that perceptual baggage behind when viewing portraits in particular.

What are you as an individual hoping to bring to The Lester Prize panel this year?

I welcomed the opportunity to be involved in this year’s judging panel and hope to bring some value to the judging process from my 30 years plus experience working in Art Museums with some of the most acclaimed artists from all over the world to reflect on the strengths of contemporary Australian arts practice.

The Lester Prize

Ian Strange

Clarissa Ball

Chris Malcolm

Portraiture

Painting

Australian art

AGWA

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A style that exhibits the very fundamentals of the human condition, from the heroic, to the despicable, the humble and deplorable, the principled and the fallen – portraiture allows us to understand not only the subject, but ourselves.

Meet the judges of Black Swan Prize for Portraiture 2018

tanya.sticca@artgallery.wa.gov.au — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 05:43:28 +0000

Meet the judges of Black Swan Prize for Portraiture 2018

tanya.sticca@a… Wed 08/07/2020 - 1:43pm

11 October 2018

Mark your calendar for October 27 as we celebrate our third year of exhibiting the finalists selected for the prestigious Black Swan Prize for Portraiture.

The Black Swan Prize for Portraiture (BSPP) is an art award that proudly supports some of Australia’s most talented portraiture artists. This year’s 40 selected finalists are in the running for $70,000 worth of prizes—including the main $50,000 Lester Group Prize, $10,000 Toni Fini Foundation Artist Prize, the $7,500 Baldock Family People’s Choice Award and two Highly Commended $500 gift vouchers from Oxlades Art Supplies.

Works selected showcase a sense of authenticity and intimacy with the subject, and representation of self. With many amazing portraiture pieces to choose from we decided to catch up with this year’s judges Mathew Lyn, renowned artist and fifteen-times finalist of the Archibald Prize, Joanna Gilmour, Curator of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, and the Director of AGWA Dr Stefano Carboni, on what they are looking for when it comes to selecting the winning piece.

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Mathew Lynn

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As a judge of the BSPP 2018, what elements and characteristics of portraiture should emerging artists think about when creating a work for selection?

Contrary to what people might think, my appreciation and analysis of portraiture is not ‘realism-centric’ at all. Rules can be true except when they’re not! So I stay completely open, favouring no hierarchy of approaches or subjects for that matter. For me (as an artist and viewer) everything gets back to the authenticity of experience and intent, and simply whether a work has a convincing reason to exist.

I look for original intuitive insight and the articulation of a deep and mysterious personal vision of another person, and that can arrive in any way at all. I look at the success (or not) or transference and translation of that vision with materials. I look and ‘listen’ for the many levels and messages within a work, especially the ones that run counter to the artist’s conscious intent (although I am not against ‘idea’). In this sense, it is primarily important to simply be yourself, as we can never really control our work or what is actually says to viewers anyway.

Mathew Lynn

Artist

Does the story behind the portrait play an important role when judging a work?

I’m not at all interested in fixed ‘ideas’ or a descriptive narrative about someone. A person, while definitely out there in the world, is ultimately a work of our imaginations, and therefore there are infinite possible versions of a subject, at least as many as there are people in the world. The great ‘shock’ of the presence of another person in the deepest sense reminds us, even disturbs us regarding the actual fluid and elusive nature of our own selves. So yes, to the extent that it’s nice to know, or may confirm something we arrived at intuitively, but not in that it is only the very surface of a mysterious experience!

Lyn’s portraits can be found in major institutions, including the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra and Government House in Sydney. He is also a registered artist for the Historic Memorials Committee on the Australia Council for the Arts. Since 2014 he has been an Artist Trustee for the Kedumba Trust and the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings.

Joanna Gilmour

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As the curator of the National Portrait Gallery, what do you think are the most exciting and challenging aspects of your role?

One of the beauties of the National Portrait Gallery is that it is quite distinct from other art museums, and our collection-building and interpretive approach is one which incorporates a number of disciplines and perspectives—biography and social history in particular, as well as art history and visual analysis. Much like an archaeologist can draw a broader, richer historical picture from the characteristics of seemingly mundane or simple object, we create an understanding of the characteristics of a portrait (materials, style, date and place of making) and help convey the story of the person represented in it. As an NPG curator, I am constantly challenged and stimulated to use the collection in such a way that Australian history is conveyed in all its nuances and complexity.

When selecting a finalist for a portraiture prize, what is the most important quality it should have?

My main rule of thumb when selecting a finalist for a portraiture prize—or when considering a portrait for the collection, for that matter—is to look for the quality or strength of the connection between the artist and the sitter. The most successful portraits, I think, are generally those wherein the sense of the transaction between the artist and his or her subject is most palpable: a palpable effort on the part of the artist to reveal something of the sitter, and on the part of the sitter to reveal something of themselves.

Joanna Gilmour

Curator, National Portrait Gallery Canberra

Does the story behind the portrait play an important role when judging a work?

Most certainly it does, especially in the case of historical portraits, which is my personal area of interest and expertise.

What is your favourite portrait in the National Portrait Gallery and why?

Just as the NPG is a hybrid institution, I am a hybrid curator—and having a background in Australian colonial history I am always most drawn to the colonial-era works in the collection. It is hard to pin down just one favourite, but having been doing a lot of research about the 1850s recently I am going to say that my favourite work in the collection at present is Charles Henry Theodore Costantini’s George and Jemima Billet and family (c.1852). The combination of artist, sitters and the work itself makes it incredibly rich as an artefact, and by teasing out the stories contained within this seemingly ephemeral and supposedly naïve little work one gleans so much more than it’s possible to learn from a grander, more technically accomplished portrait. But then again maybe it’s Edmund Edgar’s Portrait of Richard Fitzgerald (c.1838), or Maria Caroline Brownrigg’s An Evening at Yarra Cottage, Port Stephens (1857) or even William Buelow Gould’s Mr John Eason (1838) – all for exactly the same reasons!

As the curator of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, Joanna Gilmour has substantial experience with works of portraiture. She has previously judged for the National Photographic Portraiture Prize in both 2010 and 2017.

Her exhibitions and publications for the NPG include Husbands & Wives (2010); Indecent Exposure: Annette Kellerman (2011); Elegance in Exile: portrait drawings from colonial Australia (2012); Sideshow Alley: infamy, the macabre & the portrait (2015); the online exhibition Jo’s Mo Show (2011); and the upcoming Carte-o-mania! (2018).

Dr Stefano Carboni Artwork: Guy Grey-Smith Horseshoe Range 1958-1961 (detail). Oil on muslin over hardboard, 126 x 250 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 1961. © Susanna Grey-Smith and Mark Grey-Smith.

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Dr Stefano Carboni is the Director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia and has been working there for over a decade. His previous experience includes Curator and Administrator in the Department of Islamic Art at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1992 to 2008 and Visiting Professor at the Bard Graduate Center in New York. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia.

What makes a portrait stand out to you? As a judge for the BSPP, what characteristics and elements of portraiture are you looking for?

When you judge a number of works at the same time, what you look for are a number of different things: the technique, the quality of the technique, the presentation of the work and the composition. But this is not enough to decide which one is the best. It’s those works that really talk to you, that speak to you and have some kind of emotional impact that are the ones you naturally gravitate to. So I think it’s a combination of the technical skills, the artistic skills and the artists’ ability to convey an emotion that really helps you focus on the last two or three works that end up being your favourites.

Judging is also a team effort. The way I usually prefer to judge is that we initially go our own way, take notes and come up with a shortlist of each judge’s favourite work. Then we sit down and hopefully there will be some overlap so the discussion can be concentrated on those works that each judge likes. It’s really about standing in front of a work together and looking at why it is collectively a favourite.

Does the story behind the portrait play an important role when judging the work?

Absolutely! There is an artist statement that explains a little bit about the background of the portrait and it’s important that the judge reads that statement. It’s the connection the painter has with the sitter, and I think it creates a stronger emotional impact if you personally know the sitter and know a little bit about his or her story.

Dr Stefano Carboni

AGWA Director

Is there a particular style of portraiture that you prefer?

No, but I think that I’m attracted to new ways people deal with portraiture. While certainly, I appreciate the more traditional way of applying pigment or making lines, I remember last year there were a couple of portraits that were unrelated to the actual physical person or likeness of the person but they were very strong.

The Black Swan Prize for Portraiture opens the 27 October 2018 at AGWA.

Black Swan Prize for Portraiture 2018

AGWA

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Mark your calendar for October 27 as we celebrate our third year of exhibiting the finalists selected for the prestigious Black Swan Prize for Portraiture.

Portraiture

In Conversation: The Lester Prize judges 2020

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Meet the judges of Black Swan Prize for Portraiture 2018

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