FINALISTS OF THE 2019 DOUG MORAN NATIONAL PORTRAIT PRIZE
Portraits of Barry Otto, Bob Hawke, Matt Nable, Noah Taylor and Sigrid Thornton are amongst the finalists.
We are delighted to reveal the finalists of the 2019 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, Australia’s richest art prize. A portrait of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, actors Sigrid Thornton, Noah Taylor and Matt Nable, designer Kym Ellery and legendary entertainer Barry Otto are amongst the 30 paintings in the running for the $150,000 prize. The winner will be announced on Wednesday 30th October.
Leading Australian artists such as Yvette Coppersmith, Anthony Lister, Rodney Pople and Michael Zavros are amongst the finalists alongside several emerging artists.
The judges of the 2019 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (DMNPP) are artist and 2013 DMNPP winner Nigel Milsom, Director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne, Kelly Gellatly, and Peter Moran, Managing Director of the Moran Health Care Group. Peter’s parents Greta and Doug Moran established the Moran Arts Foundation in 1988.
Judges Kelly Gellatly and Nigel Milsom said: “It was certainly a challenge for the judges to shortlist the Doug Moran Portrait Prize down to the 30 finalists whose work comprises the 2019 exhibition, but one greatly aided by the possibility of seeing and assessing the works ‘in the flesh’. Being able to experience the ‘real thing’ rather than via reproduction, is invaluable – it’s where the magic combination of subject, composition, technique and scale either work, or don’t, and where you’re able to recognise the power a work of art can have over you in person. For the judges, each of the finalists in this year’s Prize achieves this magic in their own way; creating an active dialogue between the viewer, the subject and the work that is both rewarding and endlessly engaging. We hope audiences enjoy the exhibition as much as we did selecting it..”
Each year, the Moran Arts Foundation invites entries of original works from Australian artists, capturing Australians from all walks of life, whether a public figure or someone from their own circle of experience. Works must be painted at least partly from life with the sitter known to the artist and aware of the artist’s intention to enter the Prize.
The full list of finalists can be found below and can be viewed here.
The winner of the 2019 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize will be announced on Wednesday 30th October with finalists going on exhibition to the public from 31 October.
Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
Winner – $150,000
Finalists – $1,000
DOUG MORAN NATIONAL PORTRAIT PRIZE – 2019 FINALISTS
| Name | State | Artwork Title | Sitter |
| Abdul Abdullah | NSW | Often I am thinking about something else (Angelica at Jasper’s studio) | Angelica Mesiti |
| Kate Beynon | VIC | Hybrid self with kindred spirits | Self |
| Barbara Bolt | VIC | Catherine Bell at the Jewish Museum, Berlin | Catherine Bell |
| Sally Bourke | NSW | Catch | Robyn Bourke |
| Jimmi Buscombe | VIC | Dandrogyny | Daniel Newell |
| Hua Cun Chen | VIC | Who am I | Qing Yu |
| Rachel Coad | WA | Emma | Emma Booth |
| Yvette Coppersmith | VIC | Self-portrait with gladioli | Self |
| Dagmar Cyrulla | VIC | Kym | Kym Ellery |
| David Darcy | NSW | Fran | Fran Wachtel |
| Tara Gibbs | NSW | Phoebe | Phoebe |
| Ben Howe | VIC | Matilda | Matilda |
| Richard Lewer | VIC | As a bald man, I miss going to the Barber | Self |
| Anthony Lister | NSW | Barry Otto | Barry Otto |
| Robert Malherbe | NSW | Tiatia | Angela Tiatia |
| Scott Marsh | NSW | Captains knock | Bob Hawke |
| Joshua McPherson | NSW | Afterward (Portrait of Matt Nable) | Matt Nable |
| John Morris | NSW | Rose with phone | Rose Gomez Morris |
| Ellie Noir | SA | Our Solitary Burdens/As The Tides Rise | Self |
| Adam Norton | NSW | Blak Douglas Warp Drive | Blak Douglas (Adam Hill) |
| Rodney Pople | NSW | Ken and Anya 2 | Ken Unsworth |
| Paul Ryan | NSW | Colonial boy, Noah Taylor | Noah Taylor |
| Randall Sinnamon | NSW | Uncle Laddie Timbery | Laddie Timbery |
| Wendy Spindler | VIC | Bravura | Sigrid Thornton |
| Vanessa Stockard | NSW | Self Portrait | Self |
| Alex Thorby | NSW | Artist Dick Watkins | Dick Watkins |
| Natasha Walsh | NSW | The eternal metamorphoses | Self |
| Oliver Watts | NSW | Steering for dream (Ben Storrier) | Ben Storrier |
| Michael Zavros | QLD | White crash | Leo Zavros |
| what | NSW | Robert Forster | Robert Forster |