The Australian's Christopher Allen discusses this year's Archibald Prize →

The Australian, Christopher Allen

The most important thing in a portrait is a feeling of intimacy between artist and sitter, and this is something that obviously can only be achieved through spending some time working together, and cannot be derived from a photograph. Not surprisingly, most of the best of these portraits are also quite small. Notable examples include Heidi Yardley’s sensitive picture of Julia deVille and Martin Tighe’s appealing portrait of Emma Ayres, whom he had listened to on the radio long before meeting her; both of these pictures remind us of the expressive potential of hands and the advantages of the half-length format....
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