Art in the plague year: when a painting is like a new sofa
We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later.
Dismiss
Normal text size
Advertisement
In March last year a friend in Bangladesh forwarded a news item that said Australia’s borders would be closed until September. “Is it true!!!!” he exclaimed. I was sceptical and replied that neither the economy nor people’s limits of endurance would allow the closures to last that long. I thought we’d be flying again within a few months.
It’s in such moments you discover you’re really an optimist. One month into 2021 and the international borders are just as firmly closed as they were at the end of March, maybe more so. The most dire predictions don’t see us travelling internationally until next year. More than 30,000 Australians can’t even get a flight home.
 Six time Archibald Prize Finalist Angus McDonald with Michael Brand, Director of the Art Gallery of NSW after Angus McDonald wins the 2020 Archibald Prize ANZ Peopleâs Choice award for his portrait of Behrouz Boochani a Kurdish â Iranian writer, poet, filmmaker and journalist at the NSW Art Gallery in Sydney Australia. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard It says a lot about our region and the acknowledged talent that lives and works where we live, Ms Muddiman said. She said the exhibition they took down to make space for the Archibald was a collection of work from well known Australian artists who happen to live here and those who have painted while on the Tweed.
Premium Content
Subscriber only
A great irony of Behrouz Boochani’s story is the fact his image has become so recognised in a country he has never been allowed to enter.
A portrait by Lennox Head artist and filmmaker Angus McDonald depicting Mr Boochani certainly resonated enough with the public to be awarded the People’s Choice in the 2020 Archibald Prize.
Mr Boochani, a Kurdish-Iranian journalist and writer, reached Australia by boat in 2013 and was detained on Manus Island until he was able to leave for New Zealand in 2019.
There, he was ultimately granted asylum.
Mr McDonald’s work,
Behrouz Boochani, has been his sixth work to be an Archibald finalist.
Last modified on Tue 22 Dec 2020 00.52 EST
This year served up a never-ending stream of catastrophes – from record-breaking bushfires to a virulent deadly disease – but 2020 also generated a new kind of breakout star. Scientists, public servants and a very sweary man: these are the Australians who rose to prominence in this highly unusual year.
Shane Fitzsimmons
The then commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Shane Fitzsimmons, became a symbol of the bushfire fight.
Fitzsimmons, who now leads the new crisis agency Resilience NSW, was named the NSW Australian of the Year, with the committee praising his “exemplary leadership and empathetic presence”.
Arts and Culture | Melbourne Arts Entertainment heraldsun.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heraldsun.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.