Archibald Prize makes infamy a fine art

‘Like a mug-shot,’ is how Melbourne artist Nick Mourtzakis described his portrait of controversial Sydney doctor Alex Wodak, which has made it to the finals of this year’s Archibald prize.

The entry features a stern-faced Dr Wodak, the veteran Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincents Hospital, who came under heavy criticism for setting up both the first needle syringe program, and the first medically supervised injecting centre in Australia.

Mourtzakis, a first-time entrant in the Archibald, said he was extremely careful about how he represented Dr Wodak, recognising that he was a notorious public figure.

‘It’s actually a very challenging thing to take on the responsibility of representing another person,’ he said. ‘The image has to arrive at a point of equilibrium in terms of the values that you think are most true to the subject as possible.’

The Melbourne painter said the painting was not an advocacy of Dr Wodak’s work, but simply a ‘personal gesture of respect.’

‘When I met Alex I was really bowled over by the kind of person that he is. He’s a very focused individual. He’s austere.

‘He’s not out there trying to win anybody over.’

Mourtzakis said that Dr Wodak’s ‘no frills approach’ influenced the design of the artwork. ‘It’s a tiny painting’it’s like a mug-shot. Its appeal is not in its compositional interest.’

Dr Wodak is also the President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, which lobbies to regulate some forms of drug use to stem drug-related crime.

But Dr Wodak, who publicly advocated the legalisation of marijuana, said the success of the painting had almost nothing to do with the subject. ‘I see it as the work of a fabulous artist’not sufficiently recognised, and I think the person sitting is totally irrelevant.’

Dr Wodak added that he was uncomfortable with his image being used in ‘that way’ but that media attention was inevitable in his line of work.

‘It’s not a matter of wanting to interact with the media for the sake of it, it’s only wanting to interact with the media in order to achieve change,’ he said.

The winner of the Archibald will be announced at 12 noon on Friday, March 6.