THERE IS A PLATFORM CALLED ARCHIBALD 有一个擂台名叫阿基鲍尔
Curated by SHEN JIAWEI
THERE IS A PLATFORM CALLED ARCHIBALD
有一个擂台名叫阿基鲍尔
THERE IS A PLATFORM CALLED ARCHIBALD
有一个擂台名叫阿基鲍尔
CURATOR
SHEN JIAWEI
11 Jun - 25 Jul 2025
Group Floor, 317 Pacific Hwy, North Sydney NSW 2060
VIP Preview
11 - 13 Jun 2025
10 am - 6 pm
OPENING & MEET THE ARTIST
Saturday 14 Jun 2025
3 - 5 pm
When Mr. Archibald Meets Chinese Artists
Edmund Capon AM,OBE.
When the eccentric and often acerbic Mr Archibald established the annual portrait prize that was to bear his name, he could have had no idea of just what an extraordinary and enduring event he had created. Mr Archibald could not possibly have envisaged that nearly a century later his prize would be flourishing as arguably the most known and talked about art event in Australia, and I am sure too that he could not have imagined that no less than twenty Chineseborn artists would have been selected, from so many thousands of paintings entered, for the final exhibitions over the last two decades.
The art of portraiture as Mr Archibald saw it when he died in 1919 was very much an art of traditional European heritage, and thus the idea of Chinese artists participating would have been unthinkable. Happily for art in Australia, and the Archibald Prize, things have changed and the cultural and artistic horizons of the Western tradition of portrait painting have been enriched beyond expectation by our country's gregarious embrace of so many artists from China and our region. Even though the art of the interpretative and expressive portrait in the Western tradition was never a significant one in the history of Chinese painting, many artists from China who have now made Australia their home have made an impressive and distinctive contribution to the great tradition of portrait painting in this country. And yet they have retained some mysterious and hard-to-define Chinese aesthetic in their paintings. In spite of a relative uniformity of techniques, the adoption of Western media and a figurative style of representation, there remains a recognisable quality to that great range of portrait paintings by Chinese artists entered in the Archibald Prize.
I think Mr Archibald with his instinct to challenge and to ruffle the feathers of the establishment would be delighted with this refreshing injection of inspiration and diversity. With regard to the Archibald Prize, the will stated:
"...to the trustees of the New South Wales National (it was then 'national') Gallery to provide an annual prize to be styled the Archibald Prize for the best portrait preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in arts, letters, science or politics painted by any artist resident in Australasia during the 12 months preceding the date fixed..."
There are two crucial points about this that have, to my mind, ensured its longevity and its success. Firstly, that it be judged not by curators and art professionals but by Trustees who, as representatives of the community at large and entrusted with the overall management of the institution, are essentially art amateurs; and secondly, that the portrait has to be painted in the 12-month period leading up to the award — meaning that it was always about people of our place and our time. The Archibald Prize was, therefore, always going to be topical.
Not even Mr Archibald in his most eccentric moments could have imagined what a creature he had given birth to - an art event that has every year for over nine decades captured the attention of the entire country!
The level of commitment to the Archibald Prize that has been demonstrated over the last two decades by Chinese-born artists has been of very special interest to me and one which I have encouraged at every opportunity.
Looking back at some of the fine portraits entered by Chinese artists, I have also been intrigued by not only the sophisticated adaptation to what are generally — although not entirely — Western styles, but equally by the maintenance of a subtle but instinctive aesthetic which makes the majority of these works recognisably Chinese.
What emerges from this brief glimpse into the work of Chinese artists here in Australia and their engagement with that most indelibly Australian of art events, the Archibald Prize, is, firstly, those artists’ adaptability in engaging with what is, after all, a traditional Western genre with its attendant stylistic vocabulary and, secondly, those artists’ engagement with the social parameters of this unique event. I have absolutely no doubt that Mr Archibald would be both thrilled and amazed at this turn of events.
Edmund George Capon AM, OBE ( 1940 - 2019 ) was an art scholar specializing in Chinese art . He was the director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales 1978 - 2011. This preface is extracts from his essays <Chinese artists and the Archibald > which wrote for the exhibition <A Retrospective of Chinese Archibald Finalists> ( CCCS 2015 , curated by Shen Jiawei )
The art of portraiture as Mr Archibald saw it when he died in 1919 was very much an art of traditional European heritage, and thus the idea of Chinese artists participating would have been unthinkable. Happily for art in Australia, and the Archibald Prize, things have changed and the cultural and artistic horizons of the Western tradition of portrait painting have been enriched beyond expectation by our country's gregarious embrace of so many artists from China and our region. Even though the art of the interpretative and expressive portrait in the Western tradition was never a significant one in the history of Chinese painting, many artists from China who have now made Australia their home have made an impressive and distinctive contribution to the great tradition of portrait painting in this country. And yet they have retained some mysterious and hard-to-define Chinese aesthetic in their paintings. In spite of a relative uniformity of techniques, the adoption of Western media and a figurative style of representation, there remains a recognisable quality to that great range of portrait paintings by Chinese artists entered in the Archibald Prize.
I think Mr Archibald with his instinct to challenge and to ruffle the feathers of the establishment would be delighted with this refreshing injection of inspiration and diversity. With regard to the Archibald Prize, the will stated:
"...to the trustees of the New South Wales National (it was then 'national') Gallery to provide an annual prize to be styled the Archibald Prize for the best portrait preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in arts, letters, science or politics painted by any artist resident in Australasia during the 12 months preceding the date fixed..."
There are two crucial points about this that have, to my mind, ensured its longevity and its success. Firstly, that it be judged not by curators and art professionals but by Trustees who, as representatives of the community at large and entrusted with the overall management of the institution, are essentially art amateurs; and secondly, that the portrait has to be painted in the 12-month period leading up to the award — meaning that it was always about people of our place and our time. The Archibald Prize was, therefore, always going to be topical.
Not even Mr Archibald in his most eccentric moments could have imagined what a creature he had given birth to - an art event that has every year for over nine decades captured the attention of the entire country!
The level of commitment to the Archibald Prize that has been demonstrated over the last two decades by Chinese-born artists has been of very special interest to me and one which I have encouraged at every opportunity.
Looking back at some of the fine portraits entered by Chinese artists, I have also been intrigued by not only the sophisticated adaptation to what are generally — although not entirely — Western styles, but equally by the maintenance of a subtle but instinctive aesthetic which makes the majority of these works recognisably Chinese.
What emerges from this brief glimpse into the work of Chinese artists here in Australia and their engagement with that most indelibly Australian of art events, the Archibald Prize, is, firstly, those artists’ adaptability in engaging with what is, after all, a traditional Western genre with its attendant stylistic vocabulary and, secondly, those artists’ engagement with the social parameters of this unique event. I have absolutely no doubt that Mr Archibald would be both thrilled and amazed at this turn of events.
Edmund George Capon AM, OBE ( 1940 - 2019 ) was an art scholar specializing in Chinese art . He was the director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales 1978 - 2011. This preface is extracts from his essays <Chinese artists and the Archibald > which wrote for the exhibition <A Retrospective of Chinese Archibald Finalists> ( CCCS 2015 , curated by Shen Jiawei )
Cai Guohua
Finalist of 2001 Archibald Prize
Lee Lin Chin (2001)
Finalist of 2001 Archibald Prize
Oil and acrylic on canvas
162 x 254 cm
Cai GuohuaAcrylic on canvas
Shen Jiawei-Artist as the Eyewitness of Our Time (2013)
Acrylic on canvas
186 x 166 cm
Adam ChangOil on canvas
John Coetzee (2021)
A variant of the 2011 Archibald People’s Choice award-winning work
Oil on canvas
110 x 130 cm
Jeffrey Chen
Finalist of 2015 Archibald Prize
The Artist No. 6 (2015)
Finalist of 2015 Archibald Prize
Oil on canvas
50 x 50 cm
Jeffrey Chen
Oil on canvas
Alex (2014)
Oil on canvas
125 x 95 cm
Du Chonggang
Finalist of 2022 Darling Portrait Prize
Architect Gregory Burgess in His Office (2022)
Finalist of 2022 Darling Portrait Prize
Oil on canvas
92 x 91.5 cm
Du Chonggang Oil on canvas
Melanie is Reading (2022)
Oil on canvas
137 x 166 cm
Guan WeiFinalist of 2016 Archibald Prize
Plastic Surgery (2015)
Finalist of 2016 Archibald Prize
Acrylic on linen
180 x 100 x 5 cm each (4 panels)
He PeipeiFinalist of 2018 Archibald Prize
Portrait of Theodore Wohng (2018)
Finalist of 2018 Archibald Prize
Oil on canvas
80 x 77 cm
He PeipeiOil on canvas
Intersections (2015)
Oil on canvas
Diptych, 65 x 78 cm each
Li BaohuaFinalist of 1994 Archibald Prize
Hazel Hawke (1993)
Finalist of 1994 Archibald Prize
Comprehensive materials
196.8 x 151 cm
Li BaohuaFinalist of 1999 Archibald Prize
Francis Giacco (1999)
Finalist of 1999 Archibald Prize
Comprehensive materials
111.5 x 106.2 cm
Li BaohuaOil on canvas
Geoff Raby, Australian Ambassador in Beijing (2007)
Oil on canvas
164 x 151cm
Liu DapengFinalist of 2014 Archibald Prize
Portrait of Yin Cao on Blue-and-Green (2014)
Finalist of 2014 Archibald Prize
Oil on belgian linen
92 x 122 cm
Courtesy of the Art Atrium Gallery
Liu DapengFinalist of 2022 Archibald Prize
John and the Light of Ultramarine (2022)
Finalist of 2022 Archibald Prize
Oil on belgian linen
152 x 152 cm
Courtesy of the Art Atrium Gallery
Shen JiaweiOil on canvas
George Gittoes (2024)
Oil on canvas
153 x 183 cm
Song LingFinalist of 2011 Archibald Prize
My Name is Fartunate-Self Portrait (2010)
Finalist of 2011 Archibald Prize
Acrylic on canvas
197 x 197 cm
Song LingAcrylic on canvas
Rabbi Phillip Heibrunn (2012)
Acrylic on canvas
173 x 118 cm
Wang XuFinalist of 2013 Archibald Prize
Self-Portrait (Interviewing Maoist Victims) (2013)
Finalist of 2013 Archibald Prize
Oil on canvas
242 x 364 cm
Courtesy of the Art Atrium Gallery
Wang XuOil on canvas
The Born of the Tower of Babel (2018)
Oil on canvas
178 X 132 cm
Courtesy of the Art Atrium Gallery
Wang YiOil on canvas
Imprisonment and Longing (2011)
Oil on canvas
200 x 145 cm
Wang YiOil on canvas
Good Morning, Ruddock (2014)
Oil on canvas
250 x 158 cm
Yang Xifa
Guan Wei: Big-Hearted Man (2025)
Ink on paper
183 x 91 cm
Apple Xiu YinFinalist of 2011 Archibald Prize
Hearing·Meditation (2011)
Finalist of 2011 Archibald Prize
Oil on canvas
220 x 175 cm
Apple Xiu YinOil on canvas
Charles Blackman (2012)
Oil on canvas
150 x 200 cm
Zhang QiangFinalist of 2016 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
I Grew My Home From a Suitcase (2016)
Finalist of 2016 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
Oil on canvas
136 x 179 cm
Zhang QiangFinalist of 2022 Daling Portrait Prize
Peter (2022)
Finalist of 2022 Daling Portrait Prize
Oil on canvas
152 x 152 cm
Zhao DaluFinalist of 2004 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
Art Student (2004)
Finalist of 2004 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
Oil on canvas
130 x 145 cm
Zhao DaluFinalist of 2020 Darling Portrait Prize Oil on canvas
Sunny Day, 2019 (2020)
Finalist of 2020 Darling Portrait Prize Oil on canvas
Oil on canvas
80 x 150 cm
Zhou XiaopingWinner of the 1999 Holding Redlich People’s Choice award in S.H.Ervin Gallery
Zhou Xiaoping &Jimmy Pike (1998)
Winner of the 1999 Holding Redlich People’s Choice award in S.H.Ervin Gallery
Oil on canvas
204 x 154 cm
Zu TianliAcrylic, gold leaf, hand-cut paper stitched on canvas
Dr Karl: Great Moments in Science (Portrait of Karl Kruszelnicki) (2025)
Acrylic, gold leaf, hand-cut paper stitched on canvas
122 x 92 cm
爱德蒙 · 凯朋
当阿基鲍尔同中国画家相遇
当为⼈古怪⼜尖刻的阿基鲍尔先⽣以⾃⼰的姓⽒设⽴了这个⼀年⼀度的肖像奖时，他做梦也想不到他创造的是⼀个何等⾮凡⽽⼜经久不衰的赛事。他⽆法想到⼀个世纪后他的奖项成了在澳⼤利亚最为家喻户晓的艺术盛举。我也可以肯定他更不会想到在近⼆⼗多年⾥会有⼆⼗多位出⽣于中国的画家的作品从数以千计的参赛作品中脱颖⽽出⼊围画展。
在阿基鲍尔先⽣去世的1919年，在他看来肖像艺术是⼀个欧洲历史传统，因此中国画家的参与是不可想象的事情。对澳⼤利亚艺术以及阿基鲍尔奖，⾜可庆幸的是情况起了变化：远超预期的⼤量来⾃中国和其他区域的艺术家为我们的国家所接纳。他们的到来丰富了⻄⽅肖像传统的⽂化和艺术的视野。虽然作为⻄⽅传统的肖像艺术在中国绘画史⾥从来不重要，但是许多移居澳⼤利亚的中国艺术家却已经为这个国家的伟⼤的肖像画传统作出了令⼈赞叹的卓越贡献，并且迄今为⽌，他们仍将⼀些神秘莫测、难以定义的中国审美趣味保留在他们的作品⾥。尽管在技术上采⽤⻄⽅材料并且具象描绘导致作品⽐较相似，然⽽这些中国画家们参赛阿基鲍尔奖的肖像⾏列仍以其明显的质量⽽引⼈注⽬。我想阿基鲍尔先⽣凭他专爱挑战权威和玩世不恭的本能，应会为这股充满灵感与差异⽽别具⼀格的新⾎的注⼊⽽欣喜不已吧。
关于阿基鲍尔奖他的遗嘱要求是：
“由新南威尔⼠国⽴（它曾是‘国⽴’）美术馆的受托⼈提供⼀个年度性奖项，称为阿基鲍尔奖，奖给当年最佳肖像，优先考虑那些在艺术、⽂学、科学或政治⽅⾯杰出的男⼈或⼥⼈的肖像，由在12个⽉内居住在澳⼤拉⻄亚的画家在此期间完成，等等。”
在我看来，这⾥有两个关键要点确保了此奖的持久与成功。⾸先，评判⼈不是策展⼈和艺术专家，⽽是受托⼈。作为社会的代表与机构的综合管理层，他们总的说来只是艺术的业余爱好者；其次，肖像必须在提交之前12个⽉内完成，这意味着被画的像主总是现时和现地的⼈。如此⼀来，阿基鲍尔奖就永远成为当下的热⻔话题。于是，即使在阿基鲍尔先⽣最异于寻常的时刻，也⽆法设想他创造了⼀个什么东⻄：⼀个艺术赛事，在此后⾄今九⼗多年⾥年年都引来举国上下的关注！
近⼆⼗多年来中国出⽣的画家们所展示的参与阿基鲍尔奖的热情引起了我极⼤的兴趣，并在任何时机加以⿎励。今天回顾那些优秀的中国画家参赛作品，我还是被激发出好奇⼼，⽆论是那些⼤体上由⻄⽅⻛格改写⽽来的很在⾏的作品，还是保持⼀种细致的审美本能⽽⼀望可知是中国⻛的作品。
对这⾥的澳⼤利亚中国画家作品及他们与澳洲最悠久的艺术事件阿基鲍尔奖的密切关系作⼀个扼要的⼀瞥，从中可以看到两条：
第⼀是这些画家的适应⼒，说到底是同⼀个⻄⽅传统样式及其伴随的⻛格语汇的磨合；
第⼆是这些画家与这个独⼀⽆⼆的艺术赛事的社会环境的磨合。
我绝对相信阿基鲍尔先⽣⾯对赛事的这种变迁会是极度激动与喜出望外！
*爱德蒙·凯朋（1940-2019）是专⻓于中国古代艺术的英国／澳⼤利亚学者，他于1978⾄2011的33年⾥任职新南威尔⼠美术馆的馆⻓。
此⽂是他⽣前为沈嘉蔚策展的《中国出⽣的阿基鲍尔画家群》（悉尼中国⽂化中⼼，2015年）撰写的前⾔摘要。