Sanlam Private Investments announces South Africa’s first National Portrait Award
Sanlam Private Investments, in collaboration with Rust-en-Vrede Art Gallery, Durbanville, has initiated South Africa’s first National Portrait Award. A significant single prize of R100,000 will be awarded for the best portrait. In addition to the prize, the winning portrait along with a selection of approximately 40 entrant works will be exhibited at the Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in Durbanville, after which the exhibition will tour to venues around South Africa in collaboration with the Sanlam Art Collection and VISI magazine.
Artists are challenged to enter works which exemplify their ability in the medium of their choice (excluding lens-based artwork, ie video, film, photography), in the context of past and contemporary art history.
A panel of three judges will identify the winning portrait and select additional works for the national touring exhibition. All works will be judged anonymously as artists are requested not to sign the work. The judges will be announced shortly, and the panel convened by Stefan Hundt, head of the Sanlam Private Investments Art Advisory Service, and Curator of the Sanlam Art Collection.
“We feel particularly connected to this new platform for art in South Africa,” says Daniël Kriel, CEO of Sanlam Private Investments. “Our expertise lies in wealth management, where we nurture and value close personal relationships with our clients. We know art is a passion for many of our clients, and of increasing investment interest, and few things are more intimate or personal than a portrait. A commissioned portrait can be the height of flattery, or the paragon of vanity, yet remains a defining testament to the person’s individuality.”
Portraiture has been a significant part of Western art tradition dating back to ancient Egypt and classical Greece, and today it features prominently as a specialist practice patronised largely by private corporations, state- and academic institutions.
“South Africa has had a rich, and at times controversial, experience of portraiture through its social and political history,” says Stefan Hundt. “Accommodating the intentions of the commissioner and expectations of the subject requires the artist to invoke an extensive repertoire of skills and knowledge to fashion a work of substance that exceeds the minimum requirements of likeness and character.”
The Sanlam Private Investments National Portrait Award 2013 is open to anyone resident in South Africa older than 21 years. Entries should be received by 19 August 2013.
The award ceremony will take place on 27 August 2013 at the Rust-en-Vrede Art Gallery, Durbanville, where the selected works will be on exhibition and open for public viewing from 28 August 2013 until 8 October 2013.
For more information on the competition, entry forms and competition rules, please go to www.spiportraitaward.co.za or call Monica Ross on 021 976 4691.