Archibald winners chat at CHAGALL
Sitting in the Krongold Gallery surrounded by Coppersmith's Inaugural Contemporary Artist Commission, the two artists shared their thoughts on passion, advice, career and a potential portrait subject for the Archibald Prize.
One recent late Friday afternoon things were quiet at the Jewish Museum.
It was a perfect opportunity for Toby Lopata, winner of the 2023 Young Archie competition, to meet and chat with Yvette Coppersmith, the 2018 Archibald Prize winner.
Sitting in the Krongold Gallery surrounded by Coppersmith’s Inaugural Contemporary Artist Commission, the two artists shared their thoughts on passion, advice, career and a potential portrait subject for the Archibald Prize.
Coppersmith kicked off the conversation by mentioning, “My career adviser asked me when I was 16 if time and money were not a factor, what would I love to do every day, and then you just start imagining what would you do.”
“Yeah, I’m looking … at the Archibald. I’m looking at trying to enter it someday,” 10-year-old Lopata replied.
Coppersmith’s mum said she should look at what every other winner had done and try to incorporate something from their works into hers. “My advice, to you Toby, just be the best artist you can. I think you know if you want to win, so you make a painting that is the best representative of your practice.”
Lopata replied, “Earlier this year, I was trying to get into hyperrealism, but I realised that there’s no point in having hyperrealism art because I might as well take a photograph. [Instead] I started becoming more expressive in my art.”
“I went through the same thing, but much older,” Coppersmith responded. “What I like about your painting is you see the brushstrokes. You see the marks, and you see also the truth to that person’s expression. I feel like I know your grandfather from your portrait of him.”
It turns out that Lopata has already chosen his subject for a future shot at the esteemed Archibald Prize. With a grin and a shrug of his shoulders, he very calmly named Nick Cave. Considering Cave is related to the vice-principal of Lopata’s school it sounds like a good probability.
When The AJN left, Lopata was off to view the CHAGALL exhibition and to write his artistic response. It will be published in The AJN as part of a wider column running the duration of the exhibition which has other Jewish day school students doing the same.
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