Winner of the 2019 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
The artist what has won the 2019 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize for his painting of Robert Forster from The Go-Betweens. The Doug Moran National Portrait Prize is Australia’s richest art prize, with the winner receiving $150,000.
what, Robert Forster, oil, 204 x 102 cm
Robert Forster was selected from close to 1000 entries by this year’s judges; 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.
Kelly Gellatly and Nigel Milsom said:
“The 2019 winner of the Doug Moran Portrait Prize what, Robert Forster is intriguing for its lack of solid form, and for the way in which the subject hovers on the surface of the canvas like a vibrating aura. The artist has successfully captured the essence of what we think we know about Robert Forster – singer-songwriter and guitarist of the Go-Betweens, and now, music critic – but he is like a technicolour apparition; neither concrete shape nor exact likeness.
The artist has used an array of coloured broken brushstrokes as both decoration and form, while skilfully rendering three-dimensional space. For the judges, this work embodies the endless possibilities of contemporary portraiture and painting.”
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. Each of the thirty finalists receives $1000.
The Exhibition
The 2019 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize exhibition features the 30 finalists and it opens at historic Juniper Hall in Paddington on Thursday 31 October and runs until Sunday 1 December. It is open Thursday to Sunday, from 10am to 4pm. More information.
A series of free artist talks have been scheduled to coincide with the exhibition. More information.