Archibald Prize 2023: Julia Goodman wins $100,000 for Portrait of Montaigne | Archibald Prize 2023

Julia Goodman has won the 2023 Archibald Prize for her portrait of Australian singer Jessica Sero, known as Montaigne.

Announced at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Friday, the winning painting was chosen unanimously by the judges. This is the 13th time the prize has been awarded to a woman since Archibald’s inception in 1921. And for the first time a female musician has been the subject of a winning portrait.

Goodman, 29, a first-time Archibald finalist, met the singer three years ago at a share house in Annandale. He said he was „excited, overwhelmed … shocked, dumbfounded, but very happy” to win.

„It’s honestly completely surreal. I’m so grateful to be working at a time when young female voices are being heard,” she said.

She was delighted at the suggestion of shaking up an old institution: „I think it’s very exciting. I’m excited to see what the landscape of Australian paintings looks like going forward.

Goodman said he wanted to convey the feeling of both indoor and outdoor spaces. „Jess is very online. Montaigne has this big kind of online personality. He’s very popular on Twitch, his fans are mostly young people.

„She’s got this kind of real online performance persona, and she’s also really introverted. There’s this duality of what’s outside and what’s inside that’s public and private. So this work tries to mash those things together and show the public and the private at the same time.”

In her artist’s statement, Goodman notes that Cero’s pose „mirrors Egon Schiele’s Seated Woman with Bended Knees, a painting of his wife Edith that subverted conventional representations of femininity when he composed it in 1917.

„Like Eddy, Montaigne’s image is distorted: at once angular and tender, representational and imaginary. He sits in an ambiguously suggestive landscape, fragmented by a translucent screen that is at once online and offline,” he said.

As Montaigne, Cerro will represent Australia at Eurovision 2021. In a statement after the win, he said: „I definitely didn’t see it coming, not because I don’t believe in Julia’s incredible talent and kind heart, but you do. Never think this thing will happen to you.

On Thursday, Cerro posted a joke about Archibald’s winning portrait; She shared her shocking reaction on Friday. „I joked about us winning the Archibald Prize yesterday because I didn’t think we’d actually win – but we did.” She said with a smile.

The $100,000 prize is awarded to the best portrait of a person „of excellence in art, letters, science or politics” by an Australian resident and has been running since 1921. AGNSW received 949 entries for Archibald this year, coming close to a record. Set in 2020.

Announced Friday, Zachariah Fielding of the pop-electronic duo Electric Fields — won the $50,000 Wynne Prize for a landscape painting of an Australian landscape or figurative sculpture.

Fielding is entering for the first time. His work, Inma – which means “song and dance” – depicts the sounds of Mimili, a small community in the Anku Pijntjatjara Yankunitjatjara lands where he grew up.

„It’s a memory I was able to document at Paralby,” Fielding said in his artist statement. „It’s a place like the Sydney Opera House for APY lands! It’s where people come to embrace and celebrate children, teach them how to move and reflect on their heritage – and, for Mimi, it’s always maku (witch grub).

„The context of this work is rich with sound, movement and teaching. All communities [are] Coming together, Shar[ing] Their plot. However, this site is for children only. It is for children, it is taught to them by their masters, their elders.

Luridja artist Doris Bush Nungarai won the $40,000 Sulman Prize for best subject painting, genre painting or mural project in oil, acrylic, watercolor or mixed media for her work Mamunia Ngalyanani (Monster Coming).

Nungarai was born in Igundji, 250km west of Alice Springs, and married the late artist George Bush Jangala. According to a statement accompanying his artwork, the area is known to be „daunted by menacing and evil spirits.” motherOr „the cheeky ones”.

„They usually have large demonic eyes, straight hair that stands on end, and can be shaped into a variety of shapes, including humanoid. The mother They usually hide in underground dwellings or hollow trees.

Nungarai was also a finalist in this year’s Vine Prize.

There were 57 finalists vying for Australia’s oldest national painting prize this year, 30 of them women – a rare majority for a prize that often skews male.

A record 38 Indigenous artists were among the 143 finalists for the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes, compared to 27 last year. A total of 2,348 entries were received across the three prizes.

The winner of this year’s Packing Room prize — a category decided by the staff who hung the portraits at AGNSW — went to Andrea Houle’s portrait of comedian Cal Wilson last week, with the artist winning $3,000.

Finalists for the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes will be on display at AGNSW from 6 May to 3 September.