2015 Gallipoli Art Prize - 25 April

One of my favourite art little art prizes, the Gallipoli Art Prize is in its tenth (and by design) last year. Out of all the random little art prizes I am much sadder about this ending than say, the Blake Prize.  Walking around you knew exactly where you were, all the entries were right on brief.  Let's take the elevator to the second floor of the Gallipoli Memorial Club and check out the finalists ...

So it was good to see this art prize get a bit of press.  By now you may have read that Sally Robinson won the $20,000 for her Boy Soldiers.  All in all this was a worthy winner.  This year I really noticed how popular animal entries have been over the years.  A dog in a gas mask won the prize (and my 3 points) in 2013. A pigeon bearing medals took my 3 points last year.  And again there are animals everywhere this year.  I think the donkey's had it with 4 representatives but there were at least 2 horses and even pigeons again!  Of the donkey's I did quite like Martin Tighe's 'The Burden' (top).  This work also took out one of the judges highly commended's.  Alison Mackay's 'Fallen' (bottom) was actually two works.  The spoons were in order on the left and all mixed up on the right.  I think there was some deeper meaning hidden here but more importantly if you look closely she has managed to include both a donkey and a pigeon!!  Leaving the animals entirely out of it there was quite a lot of portraiture, of old diggers, of young diggers, of generations of soldiers and more.  To be honest, that does get a little generic en masse.  Of the figurative works I probably likes Susan Sutton's best, her 'Out Came the Sherrin' (pictured middle) showing some soldiers enjoying some down time.  And very appropriate although I am not sure I left my slouch hat on whilst playing footy at cadet camp!

Points:  3 points will go to Martin Tighe's donkey, s/he looks like s/he needs it!  I will give 2 points to the spoons which appeals to the badge collector in me and I will give 1 point to Susan Sutton.  I might have scored that one higher if it wasn't AFL.  Seriously this is Sydney.  Our diggers played league!

2014 Gallipoli Art Prize - 25 April

As most Australian know, 25 April 1915 was the date of the Gallipoli landings - becoming known as Anzac day.  This year is the 99th anniversary of the landings and I was down at North Bondi RSL (aka the Rathouse) with about 2,000 folks for the dawn service this year and it was great.  Luckily for me I had swung by the Gallipoli Club in the city the day before to see the opening day of the Gallipoli Art Prize.  As I said last year this is one of my favourite art prizes, and very low key.  Sadly the Gallipoli Club plan to only run it until the 100th anniversary next year.  Hopefully someone can step in and keep it running.  I hear Transfield has some spare capacity in its art sponsorship budget ...

This prize got a fair bit of press with big spreads in all the main papers.  Idris Murphy took out the $25k with his landscape 'Gallipoli Evening 2013'.  I loved the golden colouring he used on this landscape and the abstract lone pine in the centre of work links it more directly than most entries into the ethos of the Club.  It is an acquisitive prize and once they have renovated the club there is planned to be a sort of museum area where all these winners will be hung.  This will be a great addition.  There are a handful of familiar names, Fleur MacDonald, previous BL 3 point winner Kerrie Lester, Haydn Wilson and Leo Robba I recall from previous shows.  Haydn's entry, 'Gallipoli Patched' is a great colourful work, if you don't get to see them in person the SMH article I linked to has a gallery of images (actually, this year quite a few websites have the full images up which is handy for my as the lighting is terrible inside the club to take some happy snaps).  As an aside, I think if you are an established artist you've got a great chance in this prize, having looked at full entry list that was left out on a table on the first day to facilitate pick-ups.  There were some classical war artist work like Sue Jarvis' entry.  There were the more contemporary works like Alison Mackay's Battlefield (above). The artist statement said this work was about the challenges of returning to family.  I don't see that but see a lot more about symbolism and futility. Really liked it.  One of my favourites was Monique Aurichchio's 'For Gallantry' (pictured top).  This watercolour shows a carrier pigeon with medals.  But even better is that this is a real decoration.  As Monique explains in her artist statement the PDSA Dickin Medal is like the VC for war animals.  Of the 54 war animals awarded the medal, 32 were pigeons, 2 of which were aussie birds!  Someone send this to Bill Lawry!  I am thinking of talking an artist friend that does great flower paintings into doing a wreath for next years prize.  I liked Peter Gardiner's entry this year (pictured below, 'Wreath (memory)') but didn't really get the fire.  Or I did get what he was trying to say but I think it would've been prettier without it!  Dean Bowen's charcoal on paper 'Hospital Ship' was a great work.  Really intriguing.  I'll keep an eye out for him.

Points:  I like ribbons & medals, and I like paintings of birds so it looks like Monique will take the 3 points here.  The aesthetics of oil under resin are also a firm favourite, so Alison Mackay's Battlefield will take the 2 points.  The 1 point will go to Peter Gardiner for his wreath.  

2013 Gallipoli Art Prize - 24 April

Anzac Day is on 25 April which means it is time for one of my favourite Art Prizes, the $20,000 acquisitive Gallipoli Art Prize.  This is run by the Gallipoli Memorial Club and it couldn't be any more low-key if they tried. I was there at lunchtime on the opening day (Wednesday) and was the first punter in to see it.  That said, at least they had a girl behind the bar this year as last year it was even quieter.  Please get in to see this before 5 May, if not for the art then just for the random building and club that one day sooner or later will be extensively renovated.

I think I actually agreed with the judges this year.  Peter Wegner's 'Dog with Gas Mask' (top) won the prize and could be my favourite.  It definitely dominated the main room.  Most of these works have overt military themes although there are a few artists who try to sneak a regular work of theirs into the show.  Leo Robba's 'Remembrance' was a great big painting of an immaculately kept hedge and whilst I could appreciate the painting I thought it was a little too subtle for the brief.  There was quite a bit of trench art, and Bill Nix has a good example of this.  I really liked one of the smaller works, David Pavich's Waverly Memorial (above). This was also a complete bargain at $800 and if it was Paddington instead of Waverley might've come home with me.  Peter Gardiner (a previous BL 3 point winner) had a great entry 'Light Horse' which reminded me of his Dobell entry a few years ago.  Stephen Nothling, who collected BL's 3 points in the Gallipoli Prize in 2011, is back with another nice entry this year, a mixed media piece called 'There is sunshine' (below) that rocked some nice medals and ribbons.  And I am a sucker for ribbons.  Also good to see current Archibald and Wynne prize finalist James Powditch bag the triple by being a finalist here as well.  His work here is a little random, but nice and visual.  And big, gee everything is getting supersized these days.  He had the portrait of Ben Quilty in the Archibald.  Speaking of Ben Quilty, I wish he had entered one of his Afghanistan war artist works here.  Would be a good look.

Points:  I am going to double down on Peter's Dog with Gas Mask, 3 points.  This was great work, and really stands out in the field.  2 points to David Pavich's Memorial and 1 point to Stephen Nothling.  Highly Commended to the Gallipoli Memorial Club for putting this on.  I had a great great uncle land at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and he, like many others, never came back.  Lest we forget.

Gallipoli Art Prize - 27 April

I do like going along to this show.  All the ingredients were present from last year, the scruffy premises of the club adds a great deal of sincerity to this show which is open to amateur and professional artists alike.  The terms of reference are a little vague so you get a real mixed bag on display.  The Gallipoli club says the art prize will be awarded to the artist who best depicts the spirit of the Gallipoli Campaign as expressed in the club's "creed".  The creed is: "we believe that within the community there exists an obligation for all to preserve the special qualities of loyalty, respect, love of country, courage and comradeship which were personified by the heroes of the Gallipoli Campaign and bequeathed to all humanity as a foundation for perpetual peace and universal freedom".   Is that all clear?  Okay, let's check out the 2012 entrants ...
The winner this year was Geoff Harvey for his 'Trench Interment'.  It was an interesting work focusing on all manner of implements buried in a trench but probably not one of my top picks.  I did like Kerrie Lester's 'Lest we forget' (pictured above) which featured a number of vintage badges, but then again I am an ebay tragic for that sort of ephemera.   Robyn Sweaney's 'Last Light' of a soldiers memorial hall draped in poppies was a nice entry, and to my mind was right on brief.  Craig Waddell's big waratah painting was really nice (and quite pricey) but I didn't really see how that fit in with the theme.  I think its great that this prize can attract quality artists like Craig but I would prefer he did a work especially for the comp rather than (as it appears) just mail one in from his most recent body of work.  Paul Ryan, fresh from winning a point from Big Lamington for his Sulman effort has a work in here that I didn't mind although the Quilty paint slathered on digger did have a queer look on his face which will keep him out of the points this week. 

Points.  I will give 3 to Kerrie Lester.  Despite the fact that her work presents a few conservation issues (some of the badges are already falling off) I am a sucker for a collection of vintage ephemera.  The photo doesn't really do it justice, you need to see this in person.  I'll add my 2 points to the judges Highly Commended to Bill Nix for his Memorial (pictured left, yours for $7k) and give one point to Craig Handley for his budget friendly Cenotaph.  I'd usually post links to all the images on the Gallipoli Club website but it appears they are a little behind as of writing. Give it a couple of days and am sure you will be able to track down the show somewhere around here if you can't make it to the club before May 11.

2011 Gallipoli art prize - 3 May

It really is art prize season in Sydney. The easter show, the moran, the archibald, wynne and sulman prizes and now yours truly is off to the Gallipoli art prize. This is administered by the Gallipoli Club which is a funny old club down near circular quay. Their premises are a little tatty, and that is being polite. You have to climb two flights of stairs to see this show, which is hung in a function room with chairs strewn everywhere. Here's hoping the AMP come to their rescue and redevelop this building soon whereby the club will get three levels of floorspace plus a basement museum.

This is the sixth year the prize has been run. They are only doing it for about 10 years (it is acquisitive) and then they are done. This show got a nice little write up in the SMH, not hard to see why given SMH critic John McDonald is one of the judges. So what did we think of the judges efforts? Well things would've been a little different if I was Art Sheriff this year. I didn't care too much for Hadyn Wilson's prize winning 'Sacrifice'. He had a good story with it but in the absence of reading that, or being familiar with the Hyde Park memorial on which it was based, the work was pretty sparse. Given the paucity of attendance (I was the only one there at lunchtime, save for the little casino style cameras keeping an eye on proceedings) I was tempted to re-arrange the winner and highly commended stickers but was able to resist the urge. I think Ahmet Aksu's 'Anzac's Top Soldiers' would've been a beneficiary of my tomfoolery. This is either an amazing work recreating the naive style of a nine year old or it is actually by a nine year old. It is stretched really badly as well, the canvas has ripples and saggy bits everywhere. But that is the appeal of a competition open to anyone - you get some really random stuff. It was interesting to recognise some names, NAS lecturer Maryanne Wick has a nice entry and Fleur MacDonald (whose art blog is also a good read) has been hung for the 4th time. It's only on until 8 May but helpfully the club makes a pdf available (here) so check it out for yourself.

Points - 3 to Stephen Nothling, a nice work reminiscent of a wattle day badge on canvas that had strapping and eyelets down one side. Kind of reminded me of a hutchee type tent from my cadet days. 2 to Robert Hannaford's 'Life, Death and Mateship' which shows a digger getting it in the neck and 1 to Peter Smeeth for his 'Widows Legacy' - I liked this work much better than his Sulman Winner. Props to all involved and let's see if the team at Big Lamington can get something on show next year!