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



Rochfort Gallery

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 )



Date & Time
Saturday

14 June 2025

Start - 3:00 pm Friday

25 July 2025

End - 6:00 pm Australia/Sydney
Location

Rochfort Gallery

317 Pacific Highway,
North Sydney NSW 2060
Australia
0422 039 834
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Organiser

Rochfort Gallery

0422 039 834
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