Jailed portrait prize winner is an artist's artist, and one of prodigious talent
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Version 0 of 1. Nigel Milsom has won the 2013 Doug Moran national portrait prize. Worth $150,000, the Moran is the richest portrait-painting prize in the country, attracting a wide field of entrants – partly because of the big prize money, but also because artists consider it more credible than its older and arguably more prestigious cousin, the Art Gallery of NSW’s Archibald Prize. More good paintings than bad have won, and it comes without the celebrity circus and media firestorm. Milsom has been widely considered an artist who would inevitably win both the Moran and the Archibald – when he took the 2012 Sulman prize, also at the AGNSW, it was seen as the beginning of his mature career. In many respects the Moran win is a validation of that view, but unfortunately the Sulman also marked the moment when things began to go wrong for the artist personally. In 2012 Milsom and an accomplice, after a drug and alcohol bender, robbed a local 7-Eleven, assaulting a shop assistant. Milsom pleaded guilty and is now serving six years for armed robbery. The details of the crime were both shocking and disturbing, particularly for those who had known the artist personally. I have been friendly with Milsom for nearly a decade, following his work through his early solo shows in Sydney’s artist-run galleries, visiting his studio from time to time and having a beer with him at the pub. I was impressed by his work ethic and his commitment to his painting, and I was thrilled to see the evolution of his early painting to its unique current style. Milsom is an artist’s artist, with prodigious skills and an eye for a compelling subject. He has developed an idiosyncratic approach, painting in black, white and greys, often basing his pictures on images found in old books and magazines, creating a palpable sense of time and an uncertain nostalgic aura in his pictures. His Moran-winning work is Uncle Paddy, a portrait of a friend of the artist’s late father and a one-time drinking companion of Milsom’s. The painting has the presence and power of Milsom’s best work and is, in my view, a deserving winner. Since the announcement there has been among Milsom’s friends and peers a cautious celebration of the artist’s talent but also a sense of sadness that it comes at such a difficult time for him and his family. I’m sure many feel the same conflict that I do – on the one hand feeling compassion for a friend who has taken the wrong path, and on the other distress that someone who had seemed so normal would commit such an act. As his family expressed their thanks at the announcement, they also hoped that this would mark the beginning of Milsom’s rehabilitation – a wish shared by all his friends. Already there has been speculation on why the Moran judges, artist and former winner Ben Quilty and the highly respected curator Daniel Thomas, gave the prize to Milsom. Quilty, a trustee at the AGNSW and former Archibald winner, said his mission as a roving judge and trustee this year would be to shake things up. Some have speculated that the Moran decision was a publicity ploy, but the prize organisation and the Moran family themselves have been careful to downplay the win. In the small world of Australian art, I also happen to know Quilty. If I can guess his reasons for choosing Milsom’s painting, no doubt in collaboration with Thomas, it would be simply because they think it’s a fantastic painting. And it is. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |