CHERRY HOOD

Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1 June - 21 July 2002,  winner
The Archibald '02 Prize, Victorian Arts Centre, 23 November 2002 - 2 February 2003, cat.15, illus.

Benjamin Genocchio, 'Winning work stood out in a sea of mediocrity', The Weekend Australian, Sydney, 1-2 June 2002, p. 5.
Peter Ross, Let's Face It, The History of the Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, rev. edn 2005, p. 122, illus. pp. 124 and 152 

It's the bright blue eyes that did the trick, winning the Archibald Prize of 2002 for Cherry Hood amid remarkable unanimity of the judging trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The annual announcement is always of national interest, and Gallery Director, the colourful Edmund Capon, invariably adds to the moment by some apposite, if not mischievous comment. He described Hood's near naked winning portrait of Simon Tedeschi as having 'the most sensuous nipples in the Archibald!' ¹ Because the subject, the once musical prodigy and now internationally acclaimed young musician, Tedeschi was invariably seen formally dressed and often with a piano, Hood decided on the topless approach – unusual for the Archibald, but not for Hood and her watercolours of adolescent males. Of enormous size and disarmingly direct in look, Hood converted the intimacy of the medium of watercolour into a tour de force of contemporary realism. The spotlight is on the man not the performer, an artistically sensitive person housed in a sensual body. In praise of the winning work, art critic for The Australian, Benjamin Genocchio, wrote, 'What is remarkable about her portrait…is not only the likeness, honest and beguiling, but that it is lively and captivating'. ² It was only Hood's second attempt at the award, which, as so often happens, made her a national figure. All Archibald Prize winning paintings have the joint distinction of being objects of considerable historical interest as well as fine works of art.

1. Quoted by Ross, P., Let's Face It, The History of the Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, rev. edn 2005, p. 122.
2. Genocchio, B., 'Winning work stood out in a sea of mediocrity', The Weekend Australian, Sydney, 1-2 June 2002, p. 5.