The Sir John Sulman Prize is one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, having been established in 1936. It is now held concurrently with the

Archibald Prize 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 ...

, Australia's best-known art prize, and also with the Wynne Prize, at the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

(AGNSW), Sydney.

Criteria

The Sir

John Sulman Sir John Sulman (29 August 1849 – 18 August 1934) was an Australian architect. Born in Greenwich, England, he emigrated to Sydney in 1885. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and influenced the develop ...

Prize is awarded each year for "the best subject/genre painting and/or murals/mural project executed during the two years preceding the

losing Losing may refer to: Music * "Losing" (Tenth Avenue North song), a 2012 song by Tenth Avenue North * "Losing" (Takida song), a 2006 song by Takida * ''Losing'' (album) People with the surname * Sabine Lösing (born 1955), German politician Se ...

date", and as of 2008 is valued at $20,000. Media may be acrylic, oil, watercolour or mixed media, and applicants must have been resident in Australia for five years."Major art prizes: Sir John Sulman Prize"

. Retrieved 7 August 2008. The definition of the terms as given by the AGNSW is: :A genre painting is normally a composition representing some aspect or aspects of everyday life, and may feature figurative, still-life, interior or figure-in-landscape themes. A subject painting, in contrast to a genre painting, is idealised or dramatised. Typically, a subject painting takes its theme from history, poetry, mythology or religion. In both cases, however, the style may be figurative, representative, abstract or semi-abstract. A mural is a picture that is affixed directly to a wall or ceiling, as part of an architectural and/or decorative scheme.

List of winners

Source: *1940 – Harold Abbott – Vaucluse Interior (painting) *1941 –

Douglas Annand Douglas Shenton Annand (22 March 1903 – 14 December 1976) was an Australian graphic designer and artist. Early life Born at Toowoomba, Queensland, to Frederick Annand and Helen Alice Robinson. Douglas attended Tudor House School, located ...

– Historical Mural at Bathurst Public School *1942 –

Jean Bellette Jean Bellette (occasionally Jean Haefliger; 25 March 1908 – 16 March 1991) was an Australian artist. Born in Tasmania, she was educated in Hobart and at Julian Ashton's art school in Sydney, where one of her teachers was Thea Proctor. In ...

– For Whom the Bell Tolls (painting) *1943 –

Elaine Haxton Elaine Alys Haxton, AM (26 September 1909 – 6 July 1999) was an Australian painter, printmaker, designer and commercial artist. Biography Haxton was born in the north Melbourne suburb of Newmarket. Her family moved to Sydney when she was a y ...

– Mural at le Coq D'Or Restaurant, Sydney *1944 –

– Iphigenia in Tauris (painting) *1945 – Virgil Lo Schiavo – Tribute to Shakespeare, Mural at Sydney University Union *1946 –

Sali Herman Sali Herman (12 February 1898 – 3 April 1993) was a Swiss-born Australian artist, one of Australia's Official War Artists for the Second World War. Life and career Herman arrived in Melbourne in 1937 and enlisted in the Australian Army in ...

– Natives carrying wounded soldiers (painting) *1947 –

– Mural, Messrs. Jantzen (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., Lidcombe. *1948 –

– The Drovers (painting) *1949 – J. Carrington Smith – Bush Pastoral, Mural design for New State Building, Hobart *1950 – Harold Greenhill – Summer Holiday (painting) *1951 –

– Mural, Restaurant, R.M.S. "Oronsay" *1952 – Charles Doutney – Darlinghurst Road (painting) *1953 – Eric Smith – Convicts Berrima 1839, Mural at Old Court House, Berrima *1954 – Wallace Thornton – Sculptor and Model (painting) *1955 – Wesley Penberthy – Oriental Mural (mural design) *1956 – Harold Greenhill – Prawning at Night (genre painting) *1957 –

Michael Kmit Michael Kmit ( uk, Михайло Кміт) (25 July 1910 in Stryi, Lviv – 22 May 1981 in Sydney, Australia) was a Ukrainian painter who spent twenty-five years in Australia. He is notable for introducing a neo-Byzantine style of painting ...

– The Voice of Silence (subject painting) *1958 – No Award *1959 – Susan Wright – The Circus (genre painting) *1960 –

Leonard French Leonard William French OBE (8 October 1928 – 10 January 2017) was an Australian artist, known principally for major stained glass works. French was born in Brunswick, Victoria to a family of Cornish origin. His stained glass creations inc ...

– The Burial (subject painting) *1961 – Robin Norling – Sea Movement and Rocks (mural design) *1962 – John Rigby – Children Dancing (genre painting) *1963 – Roy Fluke – Spring Walk (subject painting) *1964 –

Ken Reinhard Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in t ...

– The Private Public Preview (genre painting) *1965 –

Gareth Jones-Roberts Sir Gareth (; Old French: ''Guerehet'', ''Guerrehet'') is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He is the youngest son of King Lot and Queen Morgause, King Arthur's half-sister, thus making him Arthur's nephew, as well as brother t ...

– Grape-pickers and Vineyards (subject painting) *1966 –

Louis James Louis N. James (September 1882 – June 7, 1935) was an American amateur golfer. 1902 U.S. Amateur James won the 1902 U.S. Amateur at Glen View Club, defeating Eben Byers Ebenezer McBurney Byers (April 12, 1880 – March 31, 1932) was a wealth ...

– It's Hot in Town (genre painting) *1967 – Cec Burns – Exercise in Variegation (subject painting) *1968 –

Tim Storrier Tim Storrier AM (born 13 February 1949, Sydney) is an Australian artist who won the 2012 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize with ''The Lunar Savant'', a portrait of fellow artist McLean Edwards. Tim won the 2012 Archibald Prize for a 'facele ...

– Suzy 350 (genre painting) *1969 –

– Spyhole (subject painting) *1970 –

– Philopena (genre painting) *1971 –

James Meldrum James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...

– Pyramid Shelf (subject painting) *1972 –

Peter Powditch Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

– Sun-torso 128 (Bunch) (genre painting) *1973 – Eric Smith – The Painter Transmogrified and Mrs. Smith (subject painting) *1974 – Keith Looby – Still Life and Comfy II *1975 – (joint)

Alan Oldfield Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

Transvestite (for Diane Arbus) *1975 – (joint)

Geoffrey Proud Geoffrey Robert Proud, although having had no formal training, held his first solo exhibition at the age of sixteen, and has had his work exhibited in all states with over 80 solo exhibitions and in excess of 100 group exhibitions to his credit. ...

– Untitled Jane *1976 –

Brett Whiteley Brett Whiteley AO (7 April 1939 – 15 June 1992) was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes. He held many exhibitio ...

– Interior with time past *1977 –

Salvatore Zofrea Salvatore Zofrea OAM (born 1946) is an Italo-Australian artist and painter.Marlene Antico Fine Arts'Zofrea ExhibitionAccessed 06-20-2008 Life and work Zofrea was born in Borgia Italy, on the 1st January 1946, and emigrated to Australia in 19 ...

- Woman's life, woman's love 3 *1978 –

– Yellow Nude *1979 –

– The water trap (subject painting) *1980 – Brian Dunlop – The old physics building (genre painting) *1981 – William Delafield Cook – ''A French family'' (subject painting) *1982 –

– ''Psalm 24'' (genre) *1984 –

– ''The Burn'' *1986 –

Wendy Sharpe Wendy Sharpe (born 1960 in Sydney) is an Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney and Paris. She is the only child of British parents and has a Russian Jewish heritage. Her father is the writer and historian Alan Sharpe. She counts a ...

– Black Sun – Morning and Night, Nigel Thomson – The State Institution *1987 – Marcus Beilby – Crutching the Ewes, Bob Marchant – The Grand Parade Sydney Show *1988 – Bob Marchant – Catching rabbits and yabbies at 5-mile dam *1989 – John Olsen – Don Quixote Enters the Inn *1990 –

Robert Hollingworth Robert Hollingworth is an Australian artist and writer. Overview Robert Hollingworth is an Australian artist and writer with an abiding interest in Australian history, environment, ecology, the natural sciences and nature in general. He now w ...

– Going Away/Looking Back *1991/92 – Kevin Connor – Najaf (Iraq) June 1991 *1992/93 – John Montefiore – Life Series *1993/94 – Noel McKenna – Boy Dressed as Batman 2 (Diptych) *1995 – Juli Haas – By the Banks of Her Own Lagoon *1996 –

Aida Tomescu Aida Tomescu (born October 1955) is a Romanian and Australian contemporary artist who is known for her abstract paintings, collages, drawings and prints. Tomescu is a winner of the Dobell Prize for Drawing, the Wynne Prize for Landscape and t ...

– Grey-to-Grey *1997 – Kevin Connor – The Man with itchy fingers and other figures Gare du Nord *1998 –

Robert Jacks Robert Jacks (8 March 1943, Melbourne—14 August 2014, Castlemaine) was an Australian painter, sculptor and printmaker. Born in Melbourne, Australia. He studied sculpture from 1958 to 1960 at the Prahran Technical College, Melbourne, and ...

– Changed into a weeping willow *1999 – Anne Wallace – Secret Paintings *2000 – John Peart – Snailsnake *2001 –

Euan Macleod Euan Macleod (born 1956) is a New Zealand-born artist. Macleod was born in Christchurch, New Zealand and moved to Sydney, Australia in 1981, where he lives and works. He received a Certificate in Graphic Design from Christchurch Technical Coll ...

– Exquisite Corpse with Fire, Highly commended: Elisabeth Cummings Harbour Light *2002 – Guan Wei – Gazing into deep space no. 9 *2003 – Eric Smith – Reflection *2004 – Allan Mitelman – Untitled *2005 – Sandro Nocentini – :File:SandroNocentini MySonHasTwoMothers2005.jpg#filelinks *2006 – Jiawei Shen – Peking treaty 1901 *2007 – David Disher – Axis of Elvis *2008 – Rodney Pople – Stage fright *2009 – Ivan Durrant – ANZAC Day Match *2010 – Michael Lindeman – Paintings, prints & wall hangings *2011 – Peter Smeeth – The artist's fate *2012 –

Nigel Milsom Nigel Milsom is an Australian painter. Early life Milsom was born in 1975 in the southern New South Wales city of Albury. He completed a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) at the University of Newcastle in 1998, and then undertook postgraduate s ...

– ''Judo House pt 4 (Golden mud)'' *2013 – Victoria Reichelt – ''After (books)'' *2014 – Andrew Sullivan – ''T-rex (tyrant lizard king)'' *2015 – Jason Phu – ''I was at yum cha when in rolled the three severed heads of Buddha: fear, malice and death'' *2016 – Esther Stewart – ''Flatland dreaming'' *2017 –

Joan Ross Joan Ross (born Glasgow) is an Australian artist based in Sydney who works across a range of mediums including drawing, painting, installations, sculpture and video. Her work investigates the legacy of colonialism in Australia, particularly the e ...

– ''Oh history, you lied to me'' *2018 – Kaylene Whiskey – ''Kaylene TV'' *2020 – Marikit Santiago – ''The divine'' *2021 – Georgia Spain – ''Getting down or falling up'' *2022 – Clare Healey and Sean Cordeiro – ''Raiko and Shuten-dōji''

Notes and references

External links

Art Gallery of New South Wales
– Sir John Sulman Prize * Lionel Hornibrook Jago – Sulman Prize finalist {{Authority control Australian art awards Awards established in 1936 1936 establishments in Australia