National Portrait Prizes
around the world

Canada’s National
Portrait Competition

National portrait competitions and prizes are a feature of the art scene in various countries around the world. This document gives a brief account of these events, which can be defined as portrait competitions that are organized on a national basis within a particular country. With one exception, the competitions are open only to artists who are citizens or residents of that country.

The following table lists the prizes in order of the date of the first competition.

The Archibald Prize in Sydney, Australia, dates from 1921 and is the oldest portrait prize in the world. The exhibition is often controversial, and has become a national event drawing a great deal of attention. The rules state a preference for portraits of distinguished people, and very large portraits are permitted. The jury is a large and diverse group.

The prize now known as the BP Portrait Award in the United Kingdom was first established in 1979. The competition is usually thought of as British because of its location in London, but international entries are accepted. Acceptable media are limited to oil, tempera or acrylic paintings; watercolours are excluded. There is no maximum size though restrictions apply to very large portraits. There are five jury members.

The Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in Australia was established in 1988 with an acquisitive prize of A$100,000, making it one of the richest art prizes in the world. It was initially oriented towards traditional portraiture, but has developed to include a broader range of portrait styles in the annual exhibition.

The Kingston Prize in Canada was established in 2005, and is held every two years in or near the city of Kingston, Ontario. Entries must be either paintings or drawings, with a maximum dimension of 2 metres. There are three jury members.

The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition in Washington D.C. began in 2006 and is held every three years. Remarkably, the competition is open to essentially all visual arts media including painting, drawing, sculpture, weaving, ceramics, prints, photography, video, film and digital animation. The maximum dimension for two dimensional work is 7 feet. The location at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, ensures that a great many visitors see the exhibition. There are seven jury members.

The Adam Portraiture Award in New Zealand was established in 2006, through the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. It is held every two years. The Award is acquisitive, so the winning portrait becomes the property of the Gallery, and the portraits may be sold during the exhibition. The competition is judged by a single juror.

Summary of the prizes.

• All competitions require that the portrait be made “from life”, meaning that the portrait must be based upon meeting(s) between artist and subject.

• All the competitions, except for the BP Award, require national residence or citizenship for both artist and subject.

• None of the competitions has an upper age limit for the artist. The BP and Outwin Boochever prizes have a minimum age of 18 years.

• None of the competitions is limited to professional artists.

• In all the competitions, artists submit their work directly to the organizers.

• Only two of the prizes are acquisitive.

• Restrictions on media range from essentially none (Outwin Boochever) to restrictions even within painting media (BP).

• Size restrictions are generous in all cases, and the exhibitions usually contain some large portraits.

• The Archibald, the BP and the Outwin Boochever prizes are popular with both artists and the public, and draw blockbuster crowds to the exhibitions.

• The large cash prizes attract artists who do not normally make portraits, and encourage the production of portraits outside the constraints of commissioned work.

JB

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