Faceless portrait wins Archibald

Updated

A painting of a faceless man has won Australia's most prestigious portraiture prize, the Archibald.

Tim Storrier's work The Histrionic Wayfarer (After Bosch) was chosen from 41 finalists to win the $75,000 prize, an increase of $25,000 from last year.

Though there is no face to identify the pith-helmeted figure, Storrier says his winning work is a self-portrait.

He wears glasses and carries an over-stuffed backpack, which includes Storrier's dog and muse Smudge.

If you look closely, a drawing of Storrier's face can be seen on a piece of paper being blown away by the wind in the background of the painting.

He was inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's The Wayfarer, painted in 1510 and currently housed in a Rotterdam museum.

"It was never designed initially as a self-portrait," Storrier told ABC News 24.

"It started out as being a reverential work to a painting by Bosch called The Wayfarer, which is essentially about a pilgrim making a decision between good and evil.

"Now this is not as clear as that, but it's a starting point."

The artist thanked Smudge, who was present at today's ceremony at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in his acceptance speech.

"I suppose you can say I have won with a portrait of a dog," he said.

Storrier was an Archibald finalist last year with a similar faceless self-portrait.

This year's runner-up was After Jack by Jenny Sages.

The finalists will go on public display at the gallery from Saturday.

In other art news, Imants Tillers was today awarded the 2012 Wynne landscape prize for his painting Waterfall (After Williams).

The Sulman Prize went to Nigel Milsom for Judo House Part 4 (Golden Mud), while Susan J White took out this year's watercolour prize.

Storrier is also a two-time winner of the Sulman. He first won the prize in 1968 at age 19, making him the youngest-ever artist to receive the award for best subject, genre or mural painting.

Topics: painting, awards-and-prizes, sydney-2000, nsw, australia, nt

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