19 March to 1 May 2022
In 2021, the Art Gallery of New South Wales celebrated 100 years of Australia’s oldest and most loved portrait award, the Archibald Prize.
Prestigious and controversial, the Archibald Prize is Australia’s foremost portraiture prize. The trustees of the Art Gallery judge the entries and the winner receives $100 000, courtesy of ANZ.
First awarded in 1921, the Archibald Prize was established following a bequest from former Art Gallery trustee and founder of The Bulletin magazine, JF Archibald (1856–1919), whose aim was to foster portraiture, support artists and perpetuate the memory of great Australians.
The open competition has been awarded annually (with two exceptions: 1964 and 1980) to the best portrait, ‘preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in arts, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’. Entries to the Archibald Prize must be painted in the past year from at least one live sitting.
More information to explore: