Art critic John MacDonald reviews Laura Jones’s portrait of novelist Tim Winton

As usual, it was hyped up. This year’s Archibald Prize As lackluster as any year I can remember. When I hear people harping on about Archibald being a great Australian tradition, I think it is, like Ring Barking or Crayfish Racing. There are too many gimmicky pictures and too many poorly drawn pictures. Although there are a fair number of realistic works, produced with near photographic accuracy, they are unlikely to be contenders. It would send a discouraging message that the trustees are prepared to give the prize to the best picture. Hands up, Angus MacDonald and Tslinn Hannaford.

The good news is Laura Jones’s Victory It marks a return to the quaint, old-fashioned idea that a portrait should capture the personality of the sitter. Last year’s winner was Julia Guttman’s Portrait of the singer Montaigneis a gimmick piece that seems more related to the trustees’ desire to give the prize to a young artist.

This year, the same obsession was evident, as outgoing president David Gonski announced a record number of first-time artists at the Archibald, Wynne, and Salman museums, then waited for a round of applause—but it never came. For most people, it probably doesn’t matter whether the exhibition includes first-time or experienced artists, young or old, boys, girls, or something else, black artists, white artists, or artists from Mars. They just want to see the best work. Statistics are just a distraction, and can even have a negative impact on selection, as experienced artists are eliminated and new blood is selected.

Laura Jones, 42, is a naturally crude, expressive painter whose work is sometimes good and sometimes bad. Tim Winton is the obvious favorite, perhaps because the protagonist himself is a figureless, sloppy character. Winton is rarely seen in anything other than a T-shirt, and he doesn’t often visit celebrity barbershops. Jones says the novelist acts as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and she captures that in the portrait. Winton looks sad, as he often does in his photographs. The background is casually blurred, focusing our attention entirely on the protagonist. He may look like a beach bum, but this guy’s character is undeniably strong.

I wish I could find just as much to like in other portraits, but there’s a very pronounced Goldilocks effect, with some artists trying too hard and others not trying at all.

As for the other awards, the Sulman Prize, chosen this year by Tom Polo, was expected, and Naomi Kantjuriny drew small white figures on a black background Minima Mamuchuta.

According to Gonski, two-thirds of the Wynne Landscape Prize entrants are first-time entrants, most of whom are Indigenous Australian artists. This perhaps highlights why many of Australia’s best landscape architects no longer compete. They feel they don’t stand a chance. That may be true, but at least this year, Djakanu Yunupingu’s sleep well The clear winner is Yirkala, her hometown in Arnhem Land, a cultural factory that continues to produce amazing artists.

I hope I am not too disappointed with this year’s exhibition. The Archibald has always had money flowing in, and in an age of debt, tight budgets and callous government funders, the gallery needs your money more than ever.