In the National Portrait Gallery’s (NPG) annual showcase of new portraits by Australian artists, there is a yearly push to advance our appreciation of contemporary portraiture. At the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Archibald Prize for portraits is also judged annually, but the competitive aspect of the Archibald has a tendency to restrict the limits of what kind of portraits an artist might submit. For instance, portraits in the Archibald, by and large, have faces.
That’s where the exhibition steps in to offer an expanded idea of this ancient he is represented by several glittering, glazed ceramic cameras. A photographic portrait of Constable is also included, taken by artist Andrew Curtis. Is Curtis’s image of Constable the portrait in question? And are Constable’s cameras supposed to stand as a form of portraiture? An oblique self-portrait, without a face?
