Australian mateship triumphs in the 2016 Gallipoli Art Prize with celebrated Chinese-Australian painter Jiawei Shen winning the $20,000 acquisitive award with his painting Yeah, Mate! (2015).
Jiawei Shen’s winning work depicts an Australian soldier at Gallipoli carrying his wounded comrade. The oil painting is based on an iconic Gallipoli photograph that is kept in the Imperial War Museum in London with a caption that reads ‘At ANZAC Cove, an Australian bringing in a wounded comrade to hospital. The men were cracking jokes as they made their way down from the front.’
Jiawei Shen said, “I joined the Australian nation in 1989 and got Australian citizenship in 1998. I share the memories of Gallipoli with every member of our nation, and am in tears when listening to Waltzing Matilda. As a professional history painter during the days of the 100th anniversary of the battle of Gallipoli, I painted this painting, to do my duty”. Shen has added into the composition a double rainbow; its colours suggesting medals and symbolising the spirits of loyalty, respect, love of country, courage and comradeship.
“Shen is a history painter who was trained in the traditional atelier model and is a champion of skills and techniques that are gradually being eroded from contemporary art training and practice,” said Jane Watters, Director, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney on behalf of the Gallipoli Art Prize judges. “His winning painting is heroic in the very best sense without descending into the schmultz depictions of mateship and sacrifice so prevalent in other genres.”
Every year Australian, New Zealand and Turkish painters are invited to submit works reflecting upon the themes loyalty, respect, love of country, courage and comradeship as expressed in the Gallipoli Club’s ‘creed’. Artists can interpret the broad themes in relation to any armed conflict in which Australia has been involved from 1915 up to the present day. The works do not need to depict warfare.
“The Gallipoli Art Prize continues to attract the support of the visual arts community who have once again responded with innovative works that preserve the best of the ANZAC spirit,” said Jane Watters “The broad range of imagery represented in the Prize demonstrates the level of inquiry by the artists into the stories and people from not just the Gallipoli campaign but from other conflicts and also from daily life experiences.”
Judges also commended Sydney painter Geoff Harvey for his painting Sister Kelly & The 1st Imperial Camel Corp Brigade which explores the role of Egypt in the war effort and the difficult conditions that nurses endured.
Jiawei Shen’s winning painting and the thirty-three 2016 finalist works will be on public display at the Gallipoli Memorial Club from 21 to 29 April.
Jiawei Shen, Yeah, Mate!, 2015, oil on canvas, 213 x 122cm
Geoff Harvey, Sister Kelly & The 1st Imperial Camel Corp Brigade, acrylic on board, 189 x 108cm
