Archibald Prize 2020
Vincent Namatjira’s 2020 Archibald Prize winning painting shows Namatjira (right) standing next to former Australian rules football legend Adam Goodes.
Credit: Stand strong for who you are (2020), acrylic on linen by Vincent Namatjira (photo by Mim Stirling/Art Gallery of New South Wales)
The Australian artist Vincent Namatjira has been awarded the prestigious Archibald Prize for his painting Stand strong for who you are. Namatjira is the first Aboriginal artist to win the Archibald Prize in its 99-year history.
The Archibald Prize is an Australian art prize awarded each year for portrait painting and is judged by the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Jules François (J. F.) Archibald, an Australian newspaper editor who died in 1919, provided the money for the award in his will. The Archibald Prize was first awarded in 1921 and is given for a portrait “preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia”. In establishing the prize, J. F. Archibald’s aim was to foster portraiture as well as support artists and perpetuate the memory of great Australians.
An Archibald Prize finalist for four consecutive years, Namatjira is the first Aboriginal artist to win the prize. On hearing the news Namatjira said, “I’m so proud to be the winner of the Archibald Prize, and to be the first Aboriginal artist to win is really special. I feel like this is a very important moment in Australian art. It’s an honor to be the first, but I also want to acknowledge all of the Indigenous finalists and Indigenous sitters [portrait subjects] for the Archibald this year and in past years.”
Namatjira’s winning painting, Stand strong for who you are, is a portrait of the former Australian Rules footballer and community leader Adam Goodes. In the portrait, Namatjira has painted himself alongside Goodes, whom he describes as “a proud Aboriginal man who stands strong for his people”.
Namatjira was born in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia in 1983. He now lives in the community of Indulkana in the APY (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) Lands in South Australia and works at Iwantja Arts, an Aboriginal Art Center. Namatjira began painting in 2012. Initially he created traditional dot paintings but soon turned to portraits. Namatjira is the great-grandson of the renowned artist Albert Namatjira, considered one of the most important Aboriginal painters in Australian art.
Vincent Namatjira said of his award-winning piece, “The title of my painting is stand strong for who you are. So what I recommend for my children and also for all the children in Australia, Indigenous children, just keep on doing what you do every day – just keep going for your goals and one day you’ll reach your goal.”
