Landscape or portrait?

William Nuttal with horses in the field, 2023

Noel McKenna

So what we have here is the recently announced winner of the second most important portrait competition in Australia. The Darling prize is run out of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. It is awarded biennially, commencing in the fateful year of 2020. Gordon Darling was a key advocate for establishing the NPG, becoming its first curator. Darling recognised the public interest in the Archibald prize and felt the NPG needed to get into the game. The Darling prize has all the bibs and bobs, a $75,000 stake, a people’s choice and art handler’s award, and of course controversy. The 2024 winner is Noel McKenna. At the announcement ceremony he let slip that he originally entered his painting in the 2023 Archibald, but it was rejected as being a landscape rather than a portrait. #letthegamesbegin #letsmakelemonade