Post by Julie Petersen · Fri 30 Jul 2010 · Art Prizes
Mosman Art Prize a barometer of contemporary painting
Kon Gouriotis, Director of Visual Arts, Australia Council for the Arts and judge of the 2010 Mosman Art Prize (left) with Gallery director John Cheeseman.
Kon Gouriotis, Director, Visual Arts, Australia Council for the Arts, judged this year’s Mosman Art Prize.
Here is his report:
The Mosman Art Prize is a barometer of contemporary painting which showcases some of Australia’s best artists. For the past sixty-three years Mosman Council have had a sustained commitment to a prize that is acquisitive and there is a strong sense in its collection of an Australian painting tradition achieved through the acquired works.
Collections are not just an investment of who we are culturally and socially but are also about creating facilities to allow the public to enjoy and relate to contemporary visual arts. This prize does this well, it has done it for a long time and it needs to be encouraged and supported. I encourage Mosman Council to broaden the support of the Mosman Art Prize and to attract more entries from across Australia.
The Mosman community that established this prize were visionary in thinking of the future of painting. Painting is a preferred form of practice in an era where art-making has more multiple art form choices. The Visual Arts Board funding to individual artists reported an increase in painters applying this year.
These prizes are a significant boost to artist’s income. They help provide more time for artists to focus on their primary work – art-making.
Many of the artists in this exhibition either have or will apply to the Australia Council for funding at some time. As Director of the Visual Arts Board I need to state that I do not make the decisions on artists who apply, and the selection processes of the Board have no connection to this prize.
A very strong collection of works were submitted for judging and it was very difficult to decide who would be in the final hang. Competition was intense with around eight hundred works submitted and only just over one hundred were to be selected for hanging. In selecting the work I tended to stick to paintings that gave an immediate impact – from the artists’ choice of form and subject matter. I constantly thought about the other works and how they contrasted – calm and explosive. When people see the show they will see a diversity of practice and the potential of painting as a contemporary medium and how immediate painting is to ideas.
The winner of this year’s Mosman Art Prize is the artist Craig Waddell, from Sydney, for his painting I remember you as you were my beauty. Waddell is a master painter as demonstrated by the way he has merged form and subject together giving a dynamic emotive presence to the painting. His control of paint to create a single flower is commanding and the work was an obvious choice in relation to this prize.
The Allan Gamble Memorial Prize is awarded annually to a painting focussing on the built environment. This year, it goes to Tom Carment for his work Container Wharf, Port Botany. This work is imbued with an acute sense of observation. The artist’s keen examination of the port, expressed by its slight movements, is a process I wanted to celebrate by selecting Carment’s work. The three different moments (recorded in presence at the site and at a distance) have a deep consideration of a particular focal point, and the work is beautifully crafted.
This year’s Commendation Prize goes to the painter Theresa Darmody for her work Ripple. Aside from the Waddell work this had the most impact on me. I feel a sense of freedom within the work due to its minimal palette and its relationship to the body. I also liked the contrast between Darmody’s and Waddell’s work.
The House of Phillips Fine Art, Young Emerging Artist’s Award goes to Ben Smith for his work He is of uneven temperament. His choice of a mythological subject was intriguing , and its execution was difficult to ignore.
I thank each of the entrants in this year’s Mosman Art Prize, and commend the four award recipients Craig Waddell , Tom Carment, Theresa Darmody and Ben Smith.
— Kon Gouriotis
The 2010 Mosman Art Prize is on exhibition Saturday 31 July – Wednesday 29 September 2010.