The Muswellbrook Art Prize is an acquisitive art competition hosted by the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre in the

Muswellbrook Shire Muswellbrook Shire is a local government area in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is situated adjacent to the New England Highway and the Hunter railway line. Muswellbrook Shire was established on 1 July 1979 f ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia.

History

The competition was first held in 1958, at that time as the Festival of the Valley Art Prize, as an annual event until the establishment of the Regional Arts Centre as a purpose-built standalone complex in 1999.

Timeline

1958 - Festival of the Valley Art Prize opened in Muswellbrook as an annual acquisitive art competition 1956 - Works on Paper category added to the Art Prize (as the Drawing Prize) 1961 - Acquisitive Traditional Prize category added to the Art Prize (until 1968) 1971 - Acquisitive Muswellbrook Pottery Prize category added to the Art Prize (until 1976) 1974 - Art Prize renamed The Muswellbrook Art Prize and Purchase Exhibition and The Muswellbrook Pottery Prize 1987 - Acquisitive Muswellbrook Pottery Prize renamed Muswellbrook Open Ceramic Award a restored as a category 1987 - Acquisitive Muswellbrook Photographic Award category added to the Art Prize 2002 - Muswellbrook Art Prize becomes a biennial event with winning art works housed in the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre Collection 2016 - Prize monies increased to $50,000 for Painting, $10,000 for Works on Paper, and $10,000 for Ceramics 2021 - Acquisitive Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize added to the collection of Photography again.

Description

The objective of the Muswellbrook Art Prize was stated at inception as '...to foster the interest in and understanding of art in the Upper Hunter Valley and to play a part, however modest, in the promotion of art and the encouragement of artists generally throughout Australia, the prize winning works to form the nucleus of a Muswellbrook Municipal Council Collection.' At $70,000, the Muswellbrook Art Prize was in 2016 the second-richest art prize in

South-East Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Australian mainland, which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia i ...

Muswellbrook Art Prize Winners 2011-2015

2011 Prize Winners

Catherine and Jennifer Strut (Painting) Peter Griffen (Works on Paper) Jan Downes (Ceramics)

2013 Prize Winners

Margaret Loy Pula (Painting) Claire Martin (Works in Paper) Vicki Hamilton (Ceramics)

2015 Prize Winners

Nick Ferguson (Painting) John Bokor (Works on Paper) Jane McKenzie (Ceramics)

All Prize Winners 1958-2015

Painting

Suzanne Archer
David Aspden
Peter Atkins
Alec Baker
Sydney Ball
Michael Bell
Marion Borgelt
Dorothy Braund
Viola Bromley
Liz Cuming
Jacqueline Dabron
Stephen Earle
Nick Ferguson
Roy Fluke

Dale Frank Dale Frank (born 1959) is an Australian contemporary artist best known for his biomorphic abstract paintings. His practice has included found object-sculptures, performance installations, drawings, and paintings with sculptural elements. Earl ...

Peter Gardiner
Thomas Gleghorn
Geoff Harvey

Weaver Hawkins Harold Frederick Weaver Hawkins (1893–1977) was an English painter and printmaker working with the techniques of etching, monotypes, linocuts and woodcuts. He specialized in "ambitious, sometimes mural-sized, modernist allegories of morality ...

Pearl Ingram

Jean Isherwood Jean de Courtenay Isherwood OAM, FRAS, AWI, (1911 – 6 January 2006) was an Australian watercolour and oil painter, and teacher, renowned for her colourful depictions of the Australian countryside. Biography Isherwood was born in Marrickv ...

Louis James
Ian Johnstone
Colin Jordan
Hanna Kay
Michael Kitching

Richard Larter Richard Larter (19 May 1929 – 25 July 2014) was an Australian painter, often identified as one of Australia's few highly recognisable pop artists. Larter also frequently painted in a Pointillist style. He took advantage of unusual techniques ...

Margot Lewers
Margaret Loy Pula

Elwyn Lynn Elwyn (Jack) Lynn (6 November 1917 – 22 January 1997) was an Australian artist, author, art critic and curator. Career Elwyn Lynn trained as a teacher, and was a schoolmaster in Sydney Secondary schools until 1968 (mainly English and hi ...

John Martin
Noel McKenna
Dennis Miller
John Montefiore
Angus Nivison
John Ogburn
Mike Parr
William Peascod
Charles Pettinger
David Rankin
Henry Salkauskas
Michael Shannon
Eric Smith
David Strachan
Catherine & Jennifer Strutt
Lillian Sutherland
Lezlie Tilley
Rosemary Valadon
Fred Williams

Works on Paper

Suzanne Archer
John Bokor
Francis Celtlan
Tony Coleing
Barbara Davidson

Janet Dawson Janet Dawson MBE (born 1935) is an Australian artist who was a pioneer of abstract painting in Australia in the 1960s, having been introduced to abstraction during studies in England while she lived in Europe 1957–1960 She was also an accom ...

Garry Foye
Peter Gill
Strom Gould

Guy Grey-Smith Guy Grey-Smith () was an Australian painter, printmaker and ceramicist. Grey-Smith pioneered modernism in Western Australia, and has been described as "one of Australia's most significant artists of the 20th century". Biography Early life Gu ...

Peter Griffen

Rew Hanks Rew Hanks (born 1958) is an Australian printmaker who specialises in hand painted linocut. Hanks is known for his highly detailed works that explore Australian cultural histories whilst also making wry social commentaries. Born in 1958, in Sydn ...

David Harrex
Ronald Hawke
Mimi Jaksic-Berger
Garry Jones
Jane Lander
Frank McNamara
Claire Martin

Bea Maddock Beatrice Louise "Bea" Maddock (13 September 1934 – 9 April 2016) was an Australian artist. Biography Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Bea Maddock studied art education at the University of Tasmania, Hobart and taught secondary school in her hom ...

Kiata Mason
George Moore
Murdo Morrison
Angus Nivison
Robert Shepherd
Paul Smith
Cameron Sparks
Dallas Sym Choon
Imre Szigeti
Rosemary Valadon
Paul White
Margaret Wilson

Salvatore Zofrea Salvatore Zofrea (born 1946) is an Italo-Australian artist and painter.Marlene Antico Fine Arts'Zofrea ExhibitionAccessed 06-20-2008 Life and work Zofrea was born in Borgia Italy, on the 1st January 1946, and emigrated to Australia in 1956. ...

Vera Zulumovski

Ceramics

Hildegard Anstice
William Brownhill
Enid Cryer
Greg Daly
Peter Dobinson
Jan Downes
Toni Fischer
Vicki Hamilton
Gudrun Klix
Joanne Linsdell
William Lungas
Janet Mansfield
Jane McKenzie
Kathryn McMiles
Bunty Mitchell
Susanne Moore
Lyn Nash
Chester Nealie
Megan Puls
Pam Sinnott
Vipoo Srivilasa
Ray Taylor
Peter Tilley
Peter Wheeler

Muswellbrook Art Prize adjudicators 1958-2015

Bruce Adams
John Bailey
Tony Bond
William Bowmore
Barbara Blaxland
David Bradshaw
Roger Butler

Edmund Capon Edmund George Capon (11 June 1940 – 13 March 2019) was an art scholar specialising in Chinese art. He was director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1978 to 2011. He was also the chair of soccer club Sydney FC from 2006 to 2007. E ...

Grace Cochrane
Dennis Colesy
Tracy Cooper-Lavery
Richard Crebbin
Enid Cryer
Gill Docking
Deborah Edwards
Joe Eisenberg
Judi Elliot
Andrew Fergusson
Brian Finemore
Tim Fisher

James Gleeson James Timothy Gleeson (21 November 1915 – 20 October 2008) was an Australian artist. He served on the board of the National Gallery of Australia. Early life Gleeson was born in the Hornsby in 1915 and attended East Sydney Technical Colleg ...

Mollie Grieves
Gillian Grigg
Michael Hedger
John Henshaw

Sali Herman Sali Herman (12 February 1898 – 3 April 1993) was a Swiss-born Australian artist, one of Australia's Official War Artists for the Second World War. Life and career Herman arrived in Melbourne in 1937 and enlisted in the Australian Army in ...

Ian Howard
Robert Hughes
Garry Jones
Michael Keighery
Peter Laverty

Euan MacDonald Euan James Stuart MacDonald MBE (14 August 1974 – 21 August 2024) was a Scottish businessman. He studied at the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh. MacDonald was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in October 2003 ...

Ivan McMeekin

Hal Missingham Harold "Hal" Missingham AO (8 December 19069 April 1994) was an Australian artist, Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1945 to 1971, and president of the Australian Watercolour Institute from 1952 to 1955. Early life Born in ...

Nick Mitzevich Nick Mitzevich (born 1970) is the director of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra, a position he has occupied since July 2018. From 2010 until his appointment to the NGA in April 2018, he was director of the Art Gallery of South ...

Bernice Murphy
Chester Nealie

John Olsen John Wayne Olsen AO (born 7 June 1945) is an Australian politician, diplomat and football commissioner. He was Premier of South Australia between 28 November 1996 and 22 October 2001. He is now President of the Federal Liberal Party, Chairma ...

Peter O’Neill

Desiderius Orban Desiderius Orban, (; 26 November 18844 October 1986) was a renowned Hungary, Hungarian Painting, painter, printmaker and teacher, who, after emigrating to Australia in 1939 when in his mid-50s, also made an illustrious career in that country. ...

Barry Pearce
Ron Ramsey

Lloyd Rees Lloyd Frederic Rees (17 March 18952 December 1988) was an Australian landscape Painting, painter who twice won the Wynne Prize for his landscape paintings. Most of Rees's works are preoccupied with depicting the effects of light and emphasis ...

Peter Rushforth

Anne Ryan Anne Ryan may refer to: * Anne Ryan (artist) Anne Ryan (1889–1954) was an American Abstract Expressionist artist associated with the New York School. Her first contact with the New York City avant-garde came in 1941 when she joined the Ateli ...

Bernard Sahm
Maisy Stapleton
Leigh Summers
Helen Sweeney
Daniel Thomas
David Thomas
Laurie Thomas
Peter Timms
Bruce Tindale

Tony Tuckson John Anthony Tuckson (18 January 1921 at Port Said, Egypt – 24 November 1973 at Wahroonga, Australia), was an Abstract Expressionist artist, an art gallery director and previously a war-time Spitfire pilot. He died of cancer. Education Th ...

Guy Warren Guy Warren of Ghana, also known as Kofi Ghanaba (4 May 1923 – 22 December 2008), was a Ghanaian musician, most notable as the inventor of Afro-jazz — "the reuniting of African-American jazz with its African roots" — and as a member of The ...

Joy Warren
Jane Watters
Bill Wright

References

{{reflist

External links

*http://muswellbrook.nsw.gov.au/index.php/mrac-home 1958 establishments in Australia Australian visual arts awards