History
The first prize awarded in 1921 was £400. In the early years of the Archibald Prize, the winner was dominated by Victorians, such as William Beckwith McInnes, John Longstaff, and William Dargie, which was somewhat resented by the art community in Sydney.
In 1942, Dargie won the prize with a painting that he had done as an official war artist during World War II in Syria. The ship carrying the painting back to Australia sank and the canvas was underwater for some time.
1946 was the first year in which the trustees selected works for entry, rather than displaying all those entered. Less than a third of the entries were chosen for exhibition.
Another notable winner is the 1956 portrait of Australia's celebrated Aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira, by William Dargie. The portrait was done while the sitter was visiting Sydney from the Central Desert. In 1956 the Archibald prize money was $1,364.
In 1964 and 1980, the trustees decided not to award the prize to anyone, deeming that no work was at the required standard.
There are usually about 700 entries in the Archibald Prize, of which only about 40 or so are selected as finalists for hanging. Only one entry is allowed per person each year. Some of the winning artists have had to enter for many years before they were hung. In 2005, comedian Peter Berner made a documentary called Loaded Dog, which interviewed fourteen selected Australian painters and showed how many times each of them had entered compared with how many times they had been hung as finalists, shown in the following table (asterisk denotes winners of the main prize):
| Jenny Sages | Lewis Miller* | Bill Leak | Rick Amor | Adam Cullen* | Peter Churcher | Ben Quilty | Anthony Bennett | Wendy Sharpe* | Sam Leach* | Euan MacLeod* | Craig Ruddy* | Jasper Knight | Max Cullen | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hung | 14 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Entered | 15 | 17 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
Entrants in 2006 included a painting of one of the The Wiggles by Patrick Whiteley, actor Steve Bisley by Bronwyn Graham, Garry McDonald by Paul Jackson, which is said to be a favourite with the packers, Steve Bracks by Garry Anderson, Cate Blanchett by McLean Edwards, Ernie Dingo by Marie Klement, Dennis Lillee by Melinda Mackay, Wilbur Wilde by Phillip Howe, Peter Slipper by Wayne Strickland. The 2010 prize winner was Sam Leach with his painting of Tim Minchin.
Read more about this topic: Archibald Prize
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