Keith Looby Anne Summers

Keith Looby entered a portrait of Anne Summers in the 1980 Archibald Prize. Though it was considered to be a serious contender, no prize was awarded that year. Looby recalls it as ‘a bitter experience because of all the politics’. The previous year he was also embroiled in controversy when his portrait of Paddy McGuinness, considered by some critics to be ‘the obvious winner’, didn’t win.

Twenty years after submitting his first portrait of Summers, Looby says he thought he’d make it an anniversary, just as he did last year when he submitted his second portrait of McGuinness. In part, he says, he wants to remind people that there are artists behind the artwork and that they have a history.

Summers is a prominent writer, feminist and social commentator who has been a friend of Looby’s for many years. In this portrait, Looby decided to eliminate all the symbolic associations that he had started with ‘so that the painting is not in the least bit political. I’m turning minimalist in my old age! But there’s just too much “cleverness” around and so I wanted to eliminate any cleverness.’

As for the dark colours: ‘When I think about the Archibald there is so much colour and so much going on that I thought subtlety might be the way to go,’ says Looby. ‘The danger with the Archibald is that it becomes such a carnival that it’s not about serious painting. So that’s what I aimed for – subtlety and seriousness.’

Born in Sydney in 1940, Looby studied at the National Art School. He won the Archibald Prize in 1984 with a portrait of actor/satirist Max Gillies. A winner of the Sulman Prize in 1974, he is also hung in the Sulman in 2000.