Geelong Gallery is the exclusive Victorian venue to host the Art Gallery of New South Wales exhibition, Archie 100: A Century of the Archibald Prize, celebrating 100 years of Australia’s oldest and most-loved portrait award that reflects the changing face of our nation.

The exhibition delves into the controversies and the commonplace, the triumphant and the thwarted, and honours the artists who have made the Archibald Prize the most sought-after accolade in Australian art today.

Following many years of research, and a national public appeal for help to locate lost portraits, Archie 100 features a selection of works from the Art Gallery of NSW collection as well as works from libraries, galleries and museums across Australia and New Zealand, and private Australian and international collections.

A little about the Archibald Prize

The Archibald Prize was established in 1921 from a bequest made by Jules Francois Archibald to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which now awards $100,000 prize money for the winning artist. J F Archibald, the founding editor of The Bulletin magazine, was a passionate supporter of a distinctly Australian style of nationalism, journalism and the arts. In establishing the prize his aim was to foster portraiture as well as support artists and perpetuate the memory of great Australians.

According to Archibald’s will—held in the Art Gallery of NSW archive—the Archibald Prize is to be awarded annually to the best portrait ‘preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’.

Take in the outstanding exhibition from Saturday, 6 November 2021 to Sunday, 20 February 2022.

Geelong Gallery will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day.

Main Image: John Brack Barry Humphries in the character of Mrs Everage 1969
oil on canvas, 94.5 x 128.2 cm Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased with funds provided by the Contemporary Art Purchase Grant from the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council, 1975
© Helen Brack

Image 2: Kate Beynon Self-portrait with guardian spirits 2009–10
synthetic polymer paint on linen Art Gallery of New South Wales, Contemporary Collection Benefactors 2012
© Kate Beynon

Image 3: Tempe Manning Self-portrait 1939 oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, acquired with the support of the Art Gallery Society of NSW 2021
© Estate of Tempe Manning

Image 4: Vincent Namatjira Studio self-portrait 2018
synthetic polymer paint on linen Art Gallery of New South Wales, gift of Geoff Ainsworth AM and Johanna Featherstone 2018 © Vincent Namatjira

Image 5: William Dargie Portrait of Albert Namatjira 1956
oil on canvas Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, purchased 1957
© Estate of William Dargie