ARCHIBALD PRIZE 2017

Paid exhibition

Prestigious and controversial, the Archibald Prize is Australia’s foremost portraiture prize. The Archibald Prize awards $100,000 prize money for the winning artist. In its 96th year, the Archibald Prize has been held annually since 1921.

An open competition, the Archibald Prize is judged by the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Entries to the Archibald Prize must be painted in the past year from at least one live sitting. Finalists are exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales before embarking on a year-long regional tour. In the early years, all entries were hung.

The prize was established from a bequest by Jules Francois Archibald, the founding editor of The Bulletin magazine. Archibald 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. JF Archibald died in 1919 at St Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst, with the first Archibald Prize being staged two years after his death. According to Archibald’s will – held in the Art Gallery of New South Wales 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’. 

2017 Archibald Prize regional tour ANZ Customer Offer
As an ANZ customer, you can enjoy a member’s priced ticket for entry to the Archibald Prize 2017. Offer only available when you pay with a branded ANZ Access card, ANZ Visa Debit Card, ANZ credit card or an ANZ card loaded onto your mobile wallet. A valid card must be presented to Newcastle Art Gallery staff to receive this offer. Offer excludes ANZ prepaid cards and Aussie credit cards.