Billionaire Calls for Removal of 'Unflattering' Portrait from National Gallery of Australia
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/gina-rinehart-vincent-namatjira-painting-billionaire-removal-request-national-gallery-of-australia-1234706891/
Billionaire Calls for Removal of Unflattering Portrait from National Gallery of Australia
BY ALEX GREENBERGER
May 15, 2024 10:45am
Vincent Namatjira with various portraits by him, including one of Gina Rinehart, third from left in the bottom row.
©VINCENT NAMATJIRA/COPYRIGHT AGENCY/PHOTO IWANTJA ARTS/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND IWANTJA ARTS
Gina Rinehart, the richest person in Australia, has reportedly called on Canberras National Gallery of Australia to take down a painting of her by Aboriginal artist Vincent Namatjira.
It wasnt immediately clear what had moved Rinehart, a donor to the National Gallery of Australia, to make the request, but it was clear, at least, that Namatjiras portrait was viewed as being not the kindest representation of her. Both the Guardian and the Sydney Morning Herald used the word unflattering to describe the picture, which renders her skin a pinkish color, exaggerates the folds on her chin, and turns her lips downward into a frown.
The painting is one of nearly two dozen portraits that appears in Namatjiras current retrospective at the museum, which traveled the show from the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide.
In Australia, Namatjira is well-known and much-loved. He became the first Indigenous artist to win the Archibald Prize, a prestigious Australian award for portraiture, in 2020.
[...]