This Friday (April 15) will see the winner announced of this year’s prestigious Archibald Art Prize, and in the running is a portrait of one Gareth Liddiard of the Drones.
Liddiard, singer with the Drones and successful solo artist, was painted by Sydney artist Jason Benjamin and is competing with 40 other paintings for the $50,000 prize. The title of the painting is It’s not all Henry bloody Lawson.
Over at Mess and Noise you can read an interview with Melbourne-born Benjamin, an artist who has also exhibited at the National Gallery in Canberra and The National Gallery of Victoria.
Award-winning artist Benjamin said, “I’ve been a fan of Gareth’s for ages (who hasn’t?). I’m a mate of The Drones manager Bill Cullen and had been trying to set something up for around three years. It was becoming a bit of a seasonal thing, in that reassuring and disconcerting sort of way where I’d phone Bill [and say], ‘Summer’s on the way again, where’s Gareth’?”
“I’m glad it took a while,” he continued, “because over this time Gareth put out his fantastic solo album [Strange Tourist], which I played over and over on my way down to his spot in Havilah, Victoria. We shot the shit for a few hours and that is where anything I ever do comes from, conversation/distillation.”
Musicians have previous form with the Archibald with Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, as painted by Guy Maestri, winning the Archibald in 2009. The winner will be revealed at noon on the Friday.
