THE 2011 Goulburn Art Award continues to generate controversy with a local artist raising concerns about the pre-selection process of the finalists. Bourke Street resident Charles Weyman had his entry ‘After the Fire’ rejected outright from the pre-selection on the strength of a small photo image of the acrylic on canvas work that he provided as part of the award’s entry conditions.
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Mr Weyman said he was concerned that the judges couldn’t make a good decision on an artwork’s merit based on a single jpeg image alone.
“Unless you’re looking at the physical work, it’s pretty hard to make a judgement on its value,” he said.
“They (the Gallery) made no comment on why, they just said ‘sorry, you’ve been rejected,’ he said.
Mr Weyman has been a Goulburn resident for 11 years and studied art back in the early 1960s at Plymouth Art College and Brighton Art College, as well as completing an associate diploma of fine art through the Hornsby TAFE in Sydney.
He also said that the award was attracting too many entries from professional artists at the expense of the amateur local arts community.
“If it were poor quality work, I’d understand why it wasn’t accepted. It’s not sour grapes, but if they’re going to let professionals continually enter it (the award) then there’s not much for local amateurs to strive for.”
The 2011 Goulburn Regional Award featured two categories in which local artists could enter their work. The prestigious Veolia Environmental Services National Art Award is open to artists across the country and carries prize money of $10,000, while the Regional Art Award was open to artists living within 120 kilometres of Goulburn, with prize money of $2,000.
Mr Weyman entered his painting in the Regional Art Award category. But Goulburn Regional Art Gallery Director Jane Cush told the Post that screening entries via photograph is common practice for art competitions across the world.
“That’s how most competitions are run. It’s pretty standard practice,” Ms Cush said
“You just can’t have up to 500 artworks received, receipted and hung in the gallery at once. There isn’t the space,” she said.
A two person judging panel of senior lecturer and artist Bonita Ely, and artist and gallery owner Jasper Knight judged the art award this year, and Ms Cush said there was an element of subjectivity in judging any competition of creative work.
For the full story, and a related story on Council’s review of the Art Award, please see the print edition of Wednesday’s Goulburn Post, available from our Auburn Street office and from newsagencies across the region.