AGNSW_AnnRep_00 full.pdf - Parliament of New South Wales ...

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
In a year of relentless activity and unsurpassed delights perhaps none has left a
more certain and erudite mark on the progress of civilization and the cause of art
in this country than the engagement of Roy and HG as judges of the one-off
Sporting Archie.
Roy Slaven, Lewis Miller, HG Nelson
4
It was, of course, a process of profound enlightenment
in which those two great connoisseurs learned much about
sport and I, their colleague judge, learned much about art.
I recall just some of those richly rewarding moments of
revelation which occurred during that tense and dramafilled
week when the three of us judged this unique –
thankfully – award: that paintings should, if they are to
be properly judged, be dry; that the portraits should bear
some resemblance to the subject – an innovative notion I
thought; that Adam Cullen – who incidentally won the
Archibald prize with his portrait of an endearingly spikey
David Wenham – probably painted his sporting entry of
Mark Occolupo with his own vomit and that it was,
therefore, in the eyes of my sensitive colleagues, ineligible
on technical grounds; that a somewhat tactile picture of a
cricketer called Mr.Taylor was evidently painted shortly
after the subject had been struck firmly in the face by a
rather forceful delivery and that the painting was,
therefore, best viewed at a distance of 22 yards; that a
slightly tendentious painting of the famous surfer, Mr.
Carroll, set against a background of a breaking wave, was
highly symbolic in suggesting that the subject was,
apparently, about to experience a moment of ‘vision’; and
that the eventual winner of this deeply moving contest
was in fact a very good painting of a pair of trousers and
that HG, who likes to be challenged – physically - in
matters of art was very much of the view that the subject,
the precipitate Mr. Ron Barassi, was about to leap off the