Mosman Art Prize | 70th Anniversary

In 1947, the inaugural Mosman Art Prize attracted 52 entrants, vying for a prize of 50 guineas. Seventy years later the acquisitive national art award, sponsored by Mosman Council, is one of the oldest and most prestigious Municipal art prizes in Australia, encouraging artistic debate, fostering creativity and offering community engagement with the visual arts for Sydney and wider regional audiences.

In celebration of 70 years, the Mosman Art Prize has jumped up from last year’s $30,000 to $50,000 for the major award. Commenting on the notability of the prize, John Cheeseman, Director, Mosman Art Gallery says, ‘Mosman art prize has grown in stature over the past 70 years to become an acquisitive art prize of national significance with a collection which reads like a who’s who of Australian art.’

Jumaadi, Some kind of record, 2016, 24 panels, acrylic on board, 119 x 99cm (framed)

On Thursday 28 September at Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, artist Jumaadi was presented the coveted first prize. The winning work, Some kind of record (2016), a 24 x panel acrylic work that explores the artist’s cultural roots while displaying a refreshingly honest and open approach to storytelling. The work continues Jumaadi’s interest in the history of migration and exchange between Australia and Indonesia. Jumaadi says;

‘The works are acrylic painted on found filing boards that I sourced in Cowra 2013 during a residency program, while my main focus was to trace the history of 1200 Indonesian political prisoners taken by the Dutch to Cowra from Digul during WW2 (1943). The boards have been in my custody the last few years and the conversation taking place in various studios ­– Cowra, Sydney, Java, until we arrive in a conclusion ­– the composition. Each painting contains notes, sketches, unfinished picture and line of poetry (not uncommon within my practice). To me: art making is kind of similar to praying, writing letter, searching for clue and expression of love and all kind of emotions. In this work, layering and hybrid of images construct a composition to build a grand narrative. Displacement, longing, admiration of beauty, personal poetry of places and pictures… Although they remain open to me and to the audience.’

Glenn Locklee, Urban industrial fragments, 2017, oil on aluminium, 160 x 95cm

Judge for the 2017 Mosman Art Prize, Kirsten Paisley, Deputy Director, National Gallery of Australia, commented on Jumaadi’s work;

‘This work stood out amongst the 758 entries for being unique in subject and construction. Painted on old Masonite filing dividers the studies allude to a system of recording, with the letter of the filing dividers leaving us to wonder if what at first seemed to be a record of weather recorded over a period of days, might have a greater meaning. Are these studies about people? Do they stand for feelings or moods or for places one has been? In this way Jumaadi’s work is gentle and poetic, much like a storyboard which threads together disparate moments of reflection, operating as a meditation on the meeting point of earth and sky, animated by the weather and its associated evocative moods’  

Helen McCarthy Tyalmuty, My Family’s journey, 2017, acrylic on linen, 99 x 200cm

A new Commendation Prize of $10,000, The Margaret Olley Award, was established this year to honour the late great Australian painter who was the inaugural winner of the Mosman Art Prize in 1947. Generously donated by The Margaret Olley Trust, this prize has been awarded to Aboriginal artist Helen McCarthy Tyalmuty, for her painting entitled My Family’s journey (2017).

Clara Adolphs, Sal, 2017, oil on linen, 83 x 67cm

The $3,000 Allan Gamble Memorial Award (for Built Environment) was given to Glenn Locklee for Urban industrial fragments (2017), and the Fourth Village Providore Emerging Artist Award, won by Clara Adolphs for Sal (2017). The $1,000 Mosman Art Society Viewer’s Choice Award will be announced prior to the closing of the exhibition – showcasing all 88 finalists including Wendy Sharpe, Anh Do, Fan Dongwang, John Bokor, Tony Costa, Peter Gardiner, Alan Jones, Blak Douglas, Nigel Sense, Ashley Frost, Kevin McKay, Tom Carment, Bridget Dolan, Ken Done, Khaled Sabsabi, Peter Godwin, Paul Ryan, Deborah Marks, Marie Mansfield and Martin King, to name a few.

Mosman Art Gallery
Until 29 October, 2017

Sydney

 

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