2022 Archibald Prize finalists

Here are just some of the finalists in the 2022 Archibald prive for portraiture at the NSW Art Gallery. For the full list go here: NSW Art Gallery

Vale Edmund Capon

It comes to us all eventually but it's always a bit of shock when someone you admire passes away. Edmund Capon the former director of the NSW Art Gallery has died at age 78 from melanoma.
Pictured above (right) with philanthropist James Fairfax (who passed away in 2017) Whispers thinks the photo sums up Capon's 30 years plus stewardship of the Gallery.
Fairfax was donating over $30M worth of old masters to the gallery at this small get-together and it examples how Edmund was able to seduce and secure funding and donations from the rich and connected.

But more than that, with his unique personality Edmund Capon "opened up" the Gallery to millions of visitors who may not have ever visited the place. In 2010, the year before Capon retired nearly 1.4 million visitors attended the Gallery. 

Right: Barry Humphreys at the James Fairfax art donation function.
Born in London, Capon was an expert in Chinese art and archaeology and managed that division at the world famous Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) before coming to Sydney in 1977 to promote a V&A exhibition. He never left after being offered the position as director of the Art Gallery of NSW. The V&A's loss was our gain. With a unique enthusiasm and an ability to mix with every possible social and business class and treat all with equal respect, Capon became the face of the Gallery and the numbers of visitors rose very year as Capon was able to attract major art shows from all over the world.
Edmund Capon 1941-2019 is survived by his wife Joanna , two children and three step-children.

Edmund Capon (left) with then NSW Premier Barry OFarrell and art patron Stephen Lowy in 2011

Joanna Capon (left) with Edmund and former "first lady" Lucy Turnbull.

Edmund Capon was able to transverse all strata of society and out the Art Gallery of NSW on the map, attracting the general public in their millions along with movie stars like Hugo Weaving pictured here at an Archibald Portraiture prize opening night.

The $100,000 Selfie

The Archibald Prize for portraiture has been announced and the winner is Yvette Coppersmith for her self portrait (left) whipped up in the week before entries closed. She picks up the $100K prize. The Packing Room Prize (chosen by the art gallery workers) went to Jamie Preisz for his portrait of rocker Jimmy Barnes (right) garnering him $1500. Below are some of the finalists. You have to go to the exhibition itself to see who the artists are but it's well worth it. The NSW Art Gallery is one of the world's great galleries. It's open from 10am every day.

Cate conquers New York

Hugh Jackman, Deborah Lee Furness and Wendi Murdoch at the Park Avenue Armory

Currently on display at the Art Gallery of NSW is the new video installation by renowned German artist Julian Rosefeldt (pictured below) which features Cate Blanchett .
The work presents a series of monologues that Rosefeldt has created by editing and reassembling a collage of artists’ manifestos, from declarations penned by the futurists, dadaists and situationists, to the musings of individual artists, architects, dancers and filmmakers such as Sol LeWitt, Yvonne Rainer and Jim Jarmusch.

Blanchett performs these ‘new manifestos’ while inhabiting 13 different personas – among them a school teacher, a newsreader, a factory worker and a homeless man – to explore the power and urgency of these historical words in our world today.
It's on until 19th February 2017 and Whispers will be attending a special viewing next Tuesday. Hopefully there will be some guests of the caliber who turned up in New York as the Gum Leaf Mafia invaded the Park Avenue Armory for a special US screening. As you can see from our exclusive photos it was movie star heaven.

Henson re-emerges..

18 months after the controversy swirled around the removal of his photographs of naked adolescents, photographic artist Bill Henson appeared at the Art Gallery of NSW to launch a book by one of his greatest supporters, gallery director Edmund Capon

Capon's I Blame Duchamp is a series of art essays and is the last offering before Capon's imminent retirement after 30 years of building the state gallery into one of the world's great cultural institutions.

As an assistant director of the Far Eastern Section at the world's greatest museum of art and design, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Capon was a relative unknown when hired to head the NSW Art Gallery for an interim period. He never left and has exhibited an amazing ability to schmooze politicians suffering from cultural cringe and wealthy benefactors alike, whilst enthusing an often apathetic public. Today, exhibitions draw capacity crowds and the legendary portrait contest, The Archibald creates endless controversy and has become an annual public favourite

Edmund has no plans for when he retires soon except to "travel back to London and tour Europe". "But I'll be back here to live" says Capon.

As for Henson who has exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum  in New York and at the Venice Bienalle, he went into a public hiatus when the chic Ros Oxley Gallery in Paddington was raided by police in May 2008 and 2 huge portraits of naked 13 year old youths were removed. He remains unfazed by the media frenzy that engulfed the nation and brought condemnation from the Prime Minister downwards as public figures lined up on opposing sides during the very public battle with claims of "kiddie porn". He revealed that many of his former youthful models had come forward as adults to lend him support. Ironically, the shock jock driven scandal sent prices of his work sky-high.