Archibald, Wynne & Sulman Prizes 2012

Above: Slideshow of 2012 Archibald, Wynne & Sulman Prize winners
and Archibald shortlisted entries. 

“When you take the face away, it immediately creates intrigue,” said Tim Storrier on winning the 2012 Archibald Prize, Australia’s most prestigious and most hotly debated art prize. 

Storrier’s self-portrait, ‘The Histrionic Wayfarer (After Bosch),’ has caused a stir for eschewing the subject’s features. (If you look closely at the piece of paper blowing in the wind in the top right of the painting, however, you’ll see a small sketch of Storrier’s face.) 

Storrier explained that his painting embraces the fragility of existence. “A lot of these types of pictures that I’ve been doing really have to do with a reference to mortality. It’s always staggering to think, and we’ve all been through it, that when somebody is deceased there’s nothing but a pile of rags – their clothes.” 

The painting references a 1510 oil-on-panel painting of a wandering pedlar by the Dutch renaissance artist Hieronymus Bosch. Storrier has cast himself as a humble purveyor of (artistic) wares, little more than the combined sum of the tools of his trade.

This year, the 91st year of the Archibald Prize, there were 839 entries, as well as 783 entries for the Wynne and 654 entries for the Sulman.

Visitors to the exhibition can vote in the People's Choice Award, with the chance to win $2,500 cash and a $1,000 ANZ Visa debit card. The winning artwork will be announced on Thursday May 17.  

For Art After Hours every Wednesday evening at 6.30pm during the exhibition, different celebrities will interview Archibald artists and subjects and discuss issues related to the show: 

How I picked the Packing Room Prize