One week to enter Portrait Award!

One week left until the deadline of Monday 19 August 2013!

Calling all artists: Fancy winning R100 000 for a portrait you have created? Then enter South Africa’s first National Portrait Award, launched by Sanlam Private Investments (SPI). As the media partner, VISI spoke to Stefan Hundt, head of the SPI Art Advisory Service and curator of the Sanlam Art Collection.

What sort of response are you hoping for?

We hope for a large and diverse range of entries. Portraiture is not a simple thing, although it is quite significant. In South Africa, historically, artists such as Irma Stern and Maggie Laubser painted a number of portraits, largely because of our British colonial heritage. Britain places great importance on this style – it’s the only country with a National Portrait Gallery. Nonetheless, portraits are not the biggest seller in the market, probably because they carry such individualism. What we’re hoping to do with the SPI National Portait Award is to get people to engage with the concept of what a portrait is, rather than simply a likeness in head-and-shoulders format. For instance, the medium of sculpture can add interesting elements.

What makes a good portrait?

The first thing, for most people, is the traditional perspective of seeing a likeness; a relation between what’s on the canvas and the actual person. The next thing is that the artwork should represent the person beyond simply their physical appearance. Artists use various techniques for this, for instance the angle from which they portray the subject, the texture and the proportion. Various conventions and tropes have been developed over the centuries and the artist’s ability to manipulate them determines the success of the portrait. On the other hand, the artist can subvert those conventions, turning them upside down.

Who makes a good subject for a portrait?

I don’t think you can identify an ideal portrait subject, but the biggest problem is painting people who are famous. Most portraits of Nelson Mandela, for instance, are terrible. It’s a challenge to capture someone whose image is so well-known across the world because, to do it justice, you almost have to fight the popular perception of the person. Also, most Mandela portraits are done from secondary sources and photos, so they’re sentimental and imaginary. It’s difficult to do a portrait of a well-known person unless you can get them to sit in front of you. If you want to do it well, paint someone you know.

Do you have any advice for entrants?

Get cracking! The deadline is 19 August 2013.

The Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in Durbanville, Cape Town, will hold an exhibition of the top 40 entries, which will then travel to galleries around South Africa.

For more information, entry forms and competition rules, go to www.spiportraitaward.co.za or call Monica Ross on 021 976 4691.