An artist’s portrayal of a Jewish leader produced just weeks after the Bondi massacre has won the Archibald people’s choice category.
Michael Zavros won the $۵,۰۰۰ prize for his portrait of Alex Ryvchin, the co-head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, who Zavros called an “unmistakably and unashamedly Jewish” leader.
This year ۴۵,۷۶۹ votes were cast, the highest number ever received.
Zavros said he was inspired by a deep respect for Ryvchin’s leadership of the Jewish community, as well as an uncanny likeness between the two men.
“A few years ago, my mother thought she saw me on TV, but it wasn’t, it was Alex,” Zavros said.
“As a natural leader, he spoke with clarity and conviction about the grief within his community and the changes he feared were emerging in our nation.”
The painting was created after the two men met in early January at a beach in Sydney’s east, just weeks after the Bondi terror attack.
“I wanted to paint him in water, or the sea, which carries so much rich symbolism,” the artist said.
Also included was a tefillin, which is a small black leather box with leather straps that contains scrolls inscribed with verses from the Torah.
Zavros said the cultural symbols matter as they can express faith, history, and belonging, yet too often are used to divide and to harm.
It was so important to the artwork, the portrait was officially named Alex with his tefillin in the sea.
“It’s something that binds Jewish people to thousands of years of custom, it binds us to our almighty, and for me personally, binds me to someone who was very dear to me, someone who I lost at Bondi,” Ryvchin said.
“Every time I would see him, without fail, we would do tefillin together and in the moments before he was killed … I’m sure at this moment he’s smiling at what he’s seeing.”
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A couple of years ago, Zavros took a DNA test and unexpectedly discovered that he had Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, alongside his Greek and Irish ancestry, which is a new side to himself he is still learning about.
“It’s worth reminding ourselves how fortunate we are to live in this great Western liberal democracy that welcomed my family from Cyprus in the ۱۹۵۰s, and welcomed Alex who arrived from the Ukraine as a four-year-old refugee in the ۱۹۸۰s,” he said.
The $۱۰۰,۰۰۰ Archibald prize was won by Richard Lewer for his portrait of artist Iluwanti Ken. The ۱۰۵-year-old prize is awarded to the best portrait of a person “distinguished in art, letters, science or politics” painted by an Australian resident.
Self-taught artist Sean Layh’s portrait of actor Jacob Collins won him the $۳,۰۰۰ packing room prize, which is decided by the AGNSW staff who hang the paintings each year.
The Wynne prize for landscape painting and figurative sculpture, and the Sulman prize for genre, subject and mural painting are also awarded alongside the Archibald each year. This year the $۵۰,۰۰۰ Wynne prize went to Gaypalani Waṉambi for her painting The Waṉambi tree, while the $۴۰,۰۰۰ Sulman prize went to Lucy Culliton for Toolah, a painting of one of her seven greyhounds.
A record ۲,۵۲۴ entries were received across the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes this year.
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes ۲۰۲۶ exhibition is open at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until ۱۶ August, before the Archibald finalists begin a regional tour across Victoria and New South Wales.
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report.
