Archibald Prize

The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919. It is administered by the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and awarded for "the best portrait, preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics, painted by an artist resident in Australia during the twelve months preceding the date fixed by the trustees for sending in the pictures". The Archibald Prize has been awarded annually since 1921 (with two exceptions) and since July 2015 the prize has been AU$100,000.

Since 1988 two other prizes have been added to the Archibald prize event.

The People's Choice Award, in which votes from the public viewing the finalists are collected to find a winner was first awarded in 1988. The award comes with a monetary prize of A$3,500. The inaugural People's Choice Award prize was won by Fred Cress with his portrait of fellow artist John Beard, which had won the Archibald Prize. This was the first 'double' win until Craig Ruddy won both awards with his portrait of David Gulpilil (David Gulpilil, Two Worlds) in 2001.

In 1992 the Packing Room Prize was established, in which the staff who receive the portraits and install them in the gallery vote for their choice of winner. The prize-winner is not always an Archibald finalist. Head packer Brett Cuthbertson receives 52% of the vote between packers for the prize. The Packing Room Prize is awarded annually and since June 2014, the prize has been A$1,500.

To date there has never been an Archibald Prize winner who has also been a Packing Room Prize winner. (In fact, a number of Packing Room Prize winners have not been Archibald Prize finalists). For this reason winning the Packing Room Prize is known as "the kiss of death award". (However, there were two People's Choice Awards given to Archibald Prize winners in 1988 and 2004.)

There has twice been a matching Packing Room Prize and People's Choice Award winner – although neither won the main prize – to Paul Newton's portrait of Roy Slaven and HG Nelson in 2001, and to Jan Williamson's portrait of singer/songwriter Jenny Morris in 2002.

Danelle Bergstrom has won the Packing Room Prize twice, first in 1995 with a portrait of singer/songwriter Jon English, and again in 2007 with a portrait of actor Jack Thompson, with the work entitled Take Two.

In 2020 Meyne Wyatt became the first Indigenous artist to win the Packing Room Prize.