Reviews on Inside Out Upside Down Gallery Site
Reviews...The Mortimer Art Prize 2009
This institution of the Australian representational art scene, attracted over three hundred entries this year. The standard of painting was excellent being only a little shy of the standard of the Manning Art Prize, which as we have reported previously was considered higher than the Mosman Art Prize.
The prize is judged for the best Landscape, Seascape, Portrait, Still Life, Drawing and Sculpture, as well as Best in Show. Judges for this year were Margaret Woodward, Barry McCann and Jenny Mc Cann. The judges represented by Margaret Woodward, presented an excellent critique of each of the commended and winning works.
The stand out works for me were Peter Marshall's Freya , executed in near watercolour delicateness, Martin Campbell's Wharf Study a touch of 'City of Lost Children' which I'm still thinking of buying, and Janne Kearney's Goddess Movement an intriguing portrait of several ladies. None of these won their category but all were highly commended by the judges.
The winners of the categories were all excellent pictures and my preferences should in no way be seen as diminishing the selection by the judges. The unavoidable formality of the judging did narrow the consideration of the qualities to near Ruskin like limits but there were occasional works that were appreciated outside these boundaries, including "Fiona" by Hong Fu.
The only picture that really surprised was NeilTaylor's Like Starlight in Dark Water . Having looked at it briefly I passed on to look for notable works and was surprised when the judges awarded it best in show. It is a competent work and well executed, I just couldnt see what differentiated it from other paintings. This is an indication of the consistently high standard of the paintings in the exhibition
The exhibition opened in St Brigids Church, Dubbo from 27 September till 18 October, the exhibition moved to Scots College in Sydney from 23 October to 25 October, then Dubbo followed by Kiku Arts, Bungendore from 26 November to 21 December, giving a wide audience the opportunity to see the 129 works selected for presentation.
This annual event deserves support from all those with an interest in painting, drawing and sculpture that want something other than the Archibald, Wynn, Sulman contemporary drivel. That does not say that I think contemporary art is bad, just that the quality of what the public is having foisted on it in many prizes is so poor as to require some stern words to get the overly comfortable to move on and realise that the western art tradition is not progressed by abandoning everything but the use of oil paint and canvas. At the same time the overly formulaic construction of images represented by Atelier schools will take us nowhere. The judges for this year's Mortimore are to be congratulated on making selections that show a tendency to embrace shifts in understanding of what constitutes a commendable painting.
author: Neil Miley