New Zealand-born Sydney-based artist Claus Stangl has taken out one of Australia’s top art honours with his portrait of Academy Award-winning director Taika Waititi.
Stangl was on Thursday announced as the winner of the packing room prize, a sub-category of the Archibald prize for portraiture.
The packing room gong is decided by the staff at the Art Gallery of New South Wales who receive, unpack and hang the portraits for the annual exhibition.
“I really couldn’t believe it when he said that I could do it and I could paint him,” Stangl said of Waititi.
“He’s a guy who’s completely comfortable in front of the camera, as well as working behind the lens.”
Head packer Brett Cuthbertson, who has the casting vote for the packing room prize, said this year would be his last on the judging panel. He will retire after 41 years with the Art Gallery of NSW.
“In this world full of war and Covid, [it] is pretty miserable at times. This guy has a vision and a twisted sense of humour that we all need right now,” Cuthbertson said.
The packing room prize is worth $1,500 but Stangl also remains in the running for the Archibald prize – the country’s oldest art award – and the people’s choice prize.
The Archibald prize, decided by a panel of judges, is worth $100,000. The people’s choice prize, decided by visitors to the exhibition, is worth $5,000. No artist has ever won all three prizes in the same year.
Archibald prize entries must have been painted in the past year from at least one live sitting with the artist.
The $50,000 Wynne prize will go to the best landscape painting of Australian scenery or figurative sculpture, while the $40,000 Sulman prize will be awarded to the best subject painting, genre painting, or mural project in oil, acrylic, watercolour, or mixed media.
This year, more than 1,900 entries were received for the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes.
The remaining winners will be announced on 13 May.
