Review: The second Darling Portrait Prize 2022 boasts many Archibald entrants

One of the greatest portrait painters of his time, Thomas Gainsborough, described his profession, in a letter to a friend, as "the cursed face business". Australia's love affair with the "cursed face business" appears to have no bounds with more than a dozen portrait prizes cluttering the art calendar. The most famous is the Archibald, the most infamous and richest the Moran National Portrait Prize, plus a host of others including the Brisbane Portrait Prize, Lester Prize, Portia Geach, Percival Portrait Painting Prize and less well-known, Rick Amor Self-Portrait Prize, Prospect Portrait Prize, Clare Valley Portrait Prize and the Moree Portrait Prize. This is not to mention the various photographic portrait prizes.

The second Darling Portrait Prize recently opened at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. It is a biennial exhibition, established through the generosity of Marilyn Darling to honour the legacy of Gordon Darling AC CMG (1921-2015), the founding patron of the portrait gallery. The Darling Prize in much of its structure follows the Archibald model, but with the important exception that it is judged by an expert art panel and not by the worthy captains of industry and others with deep pockets who largely make up the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

In terms of its prize purse, the Darling Portrait Prize at $75,000 is half of the purse of the Moran, less than the $100,000 of the Archibald, but more generous than the $50,000 available at the Brisbane and Lester prizes. However, neither the amount of money for the prize nor the prestige of the National Portrait Gallery has done much to tap into a more interesting pool of artists than for the Archibald. Apparently, this year's Darling Prize attracted almost 600 entries from which the 39 finalists have been selected, whereas the Archibald this year attracted 816 entries from which it pulled its 52 finalists. Not being privy to a full list of entrants, I find those who made the final cut are a familiar list of names to those in the other portrait prizes.

There are fewer giant heads in Canberra than in this year's Archibald, but a host of close parallels. For example, I think that the Wendy Sharpe self-portrait in Canberra is a stronger painting than the one in the Archibald. However, the Sydney Robert Hannaford self-portrait is more accomplished than his self-portrait in the Darling, and the quirky Caroline Zilinsky in the Archibald is more interesting than the painting she entered in the Canberra exhibition. Generally, artists tend to save what they consider their best pieces for the more prestigious show.

This year the Darling Portrait Prize was awarded to a Melbourne artist, Jaq Grantford, who specialises in portraiture and children's book illustrations. It is a striking self-portrait of a slightly eccentric looking artist recovering from cancer and lockdown with paintbrushes in her hair and her hands covering the lower part of her face. It is one of the stronger paintings in the show - competent and eye-catching.

Yvette Coppersmith, who was awarded the 2018 Archibald with a self-portrait in the style of George Lambert, in this exhibition has a self-portrait as the French singer Mireille Mathieu. It is quite a strong, highly textured painting with the face effectively carved out of the background. Effie Mandalos, another Melbourne artist, is represented by another introspective lockdown self-portrait with an effective haunting quality. Other memorable self-portraits are by Cynthia Breusch, Jenny Rodgerson and Rachael Robb.

Following in the footsteps of the Young Archies, in Canberra we have the Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize, where the younger the artist, the more interesting the work. For me, the most interesting piece is Eli Sullivan's freely-painted Ring-tail possum at night.