The Archibald Prize

The winner of the Archibald Prize - Australia's top award for portraiture - has been announced. According to Art News Blog, the result was a photo finish between Vincent Fantauzzo's excellent Triple Portrait of Heath Ledger (CLICK) and Del Kathryn Barton's ghastly tripe You are what is most beautiful about me, a self portrait with Kell and Arella, which came with a blurb as pretentious as its title (CLICK). Sir Les Patterson must have cast the deciding vote. I won't sully my blog with it. Had Coxsoft Art been on the judging panel, my vote would have gone to Zai Kuang's The sisters: Celia and Julia, shown here, for its stark beauty and controlled use of colour: two pink toenails. A gem. Click the title link to see all the finalists.