A realist portrait of television personality and actor Noni Hazlehurst has won the $5,000 people’s choice award for the 2023 Archibald prize, announced at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Wednesday.
It is a first-time Archibald win for Melbourne artist Jaq Grantford and the second portrait the artist has painted of Hazlehurst.
Tilted Through the Window, the winning works pays homage to the Logie hall of fame inductee’s enduring work on Play School.
An impishly smiling Hazlehurst gazes out at the viewer from a rain-streaked foggy window upon which it appears she has been doodling.
The symbols on the window, Grantford explained, represented “safety and protection, not just for her, but for everyone in these uncertain times”.
A second portrait of Hazlehurst by the artist, titled The Story Teller, is housed in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. Last year Grantford won the Canberra gallery’s Darling portrait prize for a self-portrait.
Grantford said the win was testament to how beloved the television personality has been, across a career that has spanned five decades.
“People’s faces light up when they mention her name, she has a real magic about her,” the artist said in a statement.
“I love her passion for the things she believes in, and she has a wonderful depth to her – an empathetic, credible face as a presenter and a sensitive and insightful actor.”
Hazlehurst has won or been nominated for almost two dozen film and television awards, most recently winning the Film Critics Circle of Australia award for best supporting actress in the film Ladies in Black.
The actor said she admired Grantford’s talent as an artist.
“Her portraits are remarkable, not only for their verisimilitude, but also for her unique and thoughtful storytelling ability,” Hazlehurst said in a statement.
“There is a warmth and authenticity about her work, which evokes a strong visceral connection between the artist, the subject and the viewer.”
This year marks her second appearance as a sitter in the Archibald prize, after Rosemary Valadon’s 1994 portrait was a finalist that year.
The $100,000 Archibald prize was won by Julia Gutman in May, for her portrait of singer-songwriter Montaigne. The finalists of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes are on display at the Art Gallery of NSW until 3 September.
