The Doug Moran National Portrait Prize is an annual Australian portrait prize founded by Doug Moran in 1988, the year of Australia's Bicentenary. It is the richest portrait prize in the world with A$150,000 awarded to the winner. The prize is acquisitive; "the winning portrait immediately becomes the property of the Moran Arts Foundation, to be exhibited permanently as part of the Moran Arts Foundation Collection". [1]
The aim of the competition is to promote contemporary Australian portraiture and, as such, entry conditions stipulate that both the artist and their subject be an Australian citizen or resident for at least one year prior to the closing date for entries, however it is not required that the artist or the subject be well known.
There was a court case in 2002–2004 involving the Moran family and the Tweed Shire Council, which ended with an out of court settlement. Following this, there was no longer a $1,000 prize paid to the 30 finalists who did not win, and no longer an international judge. [2] This has now changed back and finalists again receive $1,000. [1]
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The Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize was set in motion in 2007 by the Moran Arts Foundation. This Prize is exhibited at the same time as the Portrait Prize and consists of three sections; Open, Secondary Schools and Primary Schools. Entrants are asked to interpret ‘Contemporary life in Australia’, with an emphasis on Australian's going about their day-to-day lives.
There is a total prize pool of A$100,000, with $50,000 awarded to the winner of the Open division and $1,000 awarded to each of the 30 Finalists. The Secondary division is split into three sections; 7–8 (winner receives $2,000), 9–10 (winner receives $3,000) and 11–12 (winner receives $5,000). Each winner's school wins the same amount for the development of the arts at the school. The 30 finalists of the Primary division each receive a digital camera.
The Moran Arts Foundation Photography Workshop Program commenced in 2007 and is part of the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize.
The free workshops are run by professional photographers at schools Australia wide. Each student is given a digital camera to work with for the day along with guidance from the professional photographer. Basic photography skills are taught along the theme of ‘Visual Storytelling’ and the student's print their favourite shots of the day. In 2015 there were 112 digital photography workshops across Australia in urban, rural and remote areas. Out of the 112 workshops 21 were held in remote areas.
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 and since July 2015 the prize has been AU$100,000.
Evert Ploeg is one of Australia's most highly regarded portrait painters, who has won a range of painting prizes, such as the 1999 and 2007 Archibald Prize and was awarded the highly coveted 'Signature Status' of The Portrait Society of America.
Robert Lyall "Alfie" Hannaford, is an Australian realist artist notable for his drawings, paintings, portraits and sculptures. He is a great-great-great-grandson of Susannah Hannaford.
Paul Newton is an Australian artist. He has won the Archibald Prize Packing Room Prize twice: in 1996 with a portrait of radio announcer John Laws CBE; and, again in 2001 with a portrait of characters Roy Slaven and HG Nelson.
Louise Hearman is an Australian artist from Melbourne who has been painting and drawing from a very young age. She mostly paints with oil on masonite, though she does work with pastel and charcoal from time to time.
Ben Quilty is an Australian artist and social commentator, who has won a series of painting prizes: the 2014 Prudential Eye Award, 2011 Archibald Prize, and 2009 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. He has been described as one of Australia's most famous living artists.
Fiona Lowry is an Australian painter who airbrushes pale colours to portray landscapes with people in them. The landscapes are beautiful and ambiguous, provoking the dangerous side of wilderness. Lowry also paints portraits and won the 2014 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with a portrait of Penelope Seidler. She is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, as well as the state galleries of Australia and in private collections.
Michael Zavros is an Australian artist.
Dean Sewell is an Australian documentary photographer. He has won a number of awards. He lives in Sydney.
David Fairbairn, is an Australian painter and printmaker who was the winner of the Dobell Prize for Drawing in 1999. He has been selected as a Dobell Prize Finalist fifteen times, won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 2002 and has been exhibited in the Archibald Prize eight times. Fairbairn teaches at the National Art School, Sydney.
Tim Storrier AM is an Australian artist who won the 2012 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize with The Lunar Savant, a portrait of fellow artist McLean Edwards.
Alexander McKenzie is an Australian contemporary artist.
Mertim Gokalp is a Turkish-born Australian portrait and figure painter. He was a finalist for the Archibald Prize in 2013 with his portrait of Bille Brown, and he was a finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 2015 with his painting "The Sacrifice of the Model".
Tsering Hannaford is an Australian artist. In 2012 Tsering and her father Robert Hannaford were the "first father and daughter to show concurrently in Salon des Refusés, an exhibition of Archibald entries", and in 2015 they were the first father and daughter selected as finalists for the Archibald Prize. Tsering is a great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Susannah Hannaford.
Vincent Fantauzzo, is a Melbourne-based Australian portrait artist known for his award winning portraits of Heath Ledger, Brandon Walters, Matt Moran, Emma Hack, Baz Luhrmann, Asher Keddie and his son Luca. He has won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize twice, the Archibald Packing Room Prize, and the Archibald People's Choice Award four times.
Melissa Beowulf is an Australian artist, specialising in portraiture. She grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to Canberra in the late 1980s, later working between both Woollahra and Canberra.
Yvette Coppersmith is an Australian painter; she specialises in portraiture and still life. In 2018 she won the Archibald Prize with a self-portrait, in the style of George Lambert.
Daryl Austin is an Australian painter and arts educator, best known for portraiture. He has won several art prizes, including the Heysen Landscape Prize in 2018 and the Whyalla Art Prize in 1998 and 2002.
Dagmar Evelyn Cyrulla is an Australian contemporary artist and two times Archibald finalist. In both 2022 & 2023 she was named one of Australia's 100 hottest collectable artists. Her work is about relationships, especially those from a woman's perspective. In 2017, her painting, 'I Am' was 'Highly Commended' in the Doug Moran portrait prize. In 2017 her work 'The phone call IV' won the Manning regional gallery's "Naked and Nude" art prize.