The Archibald Prize, Australia’s oldest and most prestigious portrait award, will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2021. To mark the occasion, the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) will present ‘Archie 100’, a national touring exhibition exploring the history of the Prize, opening in mid-2021 at the Gallery alongside the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes exhibition.
Arranged thematically, the exhibition will present a diverse selection of Archibald portraits offering audiences a unique insight into Australia’s most celebrated portraiture prize over its 100-year history, showcasing the triumphant and the thwarted, the many and varied subjects, as well as the controversies and the commonplace.
John Brack, Barry Humphries in the character of Mrs Everage, 1969, oil on canvas, 94.5 x 128.2cm. Purchased with funds provided by the Contemporary Art Purchase Grant from the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council 1975. © Helen Brack. This work was a finalist in the 1969 Archibald Prize and was acquired by the Gallery in 1975
‘Archie 100’ will comprise works from the Gallery’s own collection as well as from collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the National Library of Australia, the State Library of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria and regional galleries around Australia, as well as from private Australian and international collections.
Incredibly, more than 6,000 portraits have been included in the Archibald Prize to date. In preparation for the touring exhibition and to add vital information and images to its Prizes Archive, AGNSW is now seeking the help of Australians across the country to provide more information about, and images of, portraits that have been in the Archibald Prize throughout its history.
The prizes section of the Gallery’s website is an essential resource for researchers and members of the public that the Gallery is seeking to develop further: finding the current location of many of these works, most of which will be in private collections, as well as discover other information, including images and details of the sitters.
Do you have information about, or images of Archibald Prize works not currently on the Gallery’s website that you can share with AGNSW? If the answer is yes, please email Archie100@ag.nsw.gov.au or write to:
Natalie Wilson
Curator Australian & Pacific Art
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery Road, The Domain
Sydney, NSW, 2000
