Kevin Conner, Le Grand Palais, Clemenceau, de Gaulle and me.
Robert Kennedy - AGNSW: The 2005 Dobell Prize for Drawing
15 August 2005
This year’s Dobell prize is filled with drawings of an incisive and immensely powerful nature. So why is the Dobell prize for drawing nowhere near as popular as the Archibald award? Let’s compare them for a moment. The Dobell’s inception: 1993, the Archibald: 1921; the prize money: $20,000 Dobell, $35,000 Archibald; number of entries: Dobell about 450, Archibald 850 plus; number of visitors: Archibald uncountable at $8.00 a pop, Dobell not many, but it’s free.
So where are the comparisons? Well there aren’t many. The similarities lie in the quality of the art submitted and those selected for the prizes. Australia is awash with visual artists that are as good if not better than any working artists in the world. As always with the Dobell prize there is no theme expressed, but should there be, this year’s would be “power” or “images with impact”.
Gillian Bennett’s – Benedicta is a drawing so powerful it probably should have won the award. This work, built on six panels, pyramid shaped, has the image of an African woman over a background sepia wash. It’s so strong that the overpowering visual impact takes your breath away. This woman looking off into the distance at regret, at a life unfulfilled; with the inner strength and power of a woman seen in her eyes, in her memory which you can almost touch and her spreading legs makes this the most powerful work in the exhibition.
Christopher Orchard – Water What a startling work this is – an imposing figure of a suited man wading through water before a rocky cliff face. It’s a side-on view of the suited man who is struggling to get somewhere, to perhaps save someone or to get away from something. The man’s bald head is a suggestive similar to the bald rocks he walks before. It’s like a scene from a Hitchcock movie where things are unexplained but life threateningly important. This would have been my overall winner.
Kevin Connor – Le Grand Palais Clemenceau de Gaulle and me Quite a title, but not quite a work. Similarities can be drawn between this work and John Olson’s 2005 Archibald-winning Janus Faced. While the more you look at it the more it reveals it still failed to move me. The evenness of the drawing is what kept me out. This drawing looks like a densely populated swamp, but supposedly is a street with the partly submerged image of the painter and Clemenceau walking away, oh and a little de Gaulle. As the lines and swirls cross over so much it’s possible to make out images within images, and possibly things that the artist never intended, like numbers. With all that happening it still flopped for me – my immediate response was to walk on.
Wendy Sharpe – Backstage – Sydney Opera House (Fledermaus) Another potent and dark image from this artist, following the style of her drawing exhibited in last year's Dobell prize, My Grandfather and I on Mile End Road (London). This work illustrates the events of an actual opera, but the work is an opera within itself. There is colour and darkness, secrecy and song. Sharpe’s images make you think of a Walter Sickert painting, and they contain as much imagination and vibrancy. One can’t help but to fall in love with her images. While the overall tone of this work is dark, it leaves you with a happy ending.
William Sykes – Sniper Why are images of the human face that don’t reveal the finer detail so compelling? Like a Jean Bellette painting this life-size drawing of a soldier purposely has no eyes or nose. While Bellette’s works are more faceless than having parts missing, a similar affect is achieved. As you enter the exhibition this image grabs you. You can’t focus on the eyes because they aren’t there; is it saying I am a mechanical force that has no human connection, so I can kill you? It’s an image of great detail and strength but considering the title I feel the removal of just the eyes would have said more.
I hope Australia develops more drawing exhibitions like the Dobell, but also more recognition and awards for the medium and the artists.
- Robert Kennedy
More Information
2005 Dobell Prize for Drawing
Until 16 October
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery Road, The Domain
Open daily 10am - 5pm (until 9pm Wednesdays)
Entry free.
Website: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/
