Sydney painter Sally Robinson has won the 2015 Gallipoli Art Prize with her painting Boy Soldiers depicting grave stones at Gallipoli stencilled with the names and ages of the youngest soldiers to die in the Gallipoli campaign.
“Like others who have travelled to the Gallipoli grave sites in Turkey, I was struck by how young a large number of the soldiers who died there were, some no more than boys,” said Sally Robinson. “This painting commemorates those young lives lost.”
“Over a backdrop of Lone Pine Cemetery, where many of these boy soldiers now lie, and under the Australian Military Forces rising sun emblem, I have stencilled the names and ages of the youngest soldiers to die in the Gallipoli campaign.”
“No-one who has visited this place can fail to be moved by the inscriptions which reveal the youth of the fallen soldiers,” said judge John McDonald of the winning work. “In Robinson’s picture the words swim in hallucinogenic fashion across the canvas, as if the artist – and by extension, the viewer – is struggling to come to terms with this realisation.”
Judges also commended Victorian Martin Tighe for his painting of a donkey The Burden and NSW artist Maryanne Wick for Greater Love Hath no Man.
A record number of entries were received for this year’s Gallipoli Art Prize, marking a significant milestone for the prize that celebrates its 10th and final year in its current form. The Gallipoli Memorial Club will make an announcement in August regarding the future direction for the Gallipoli Art Prize.
The three paintings are amongst 38 finalist works that will be on display at the Gallipoli Memorial Club in Sydney from 23 April to 3 May 2015. For more information, visit: www.gallipoli.com.au for details.
Image: Sally Robinson Boy Soldiers 2015. Acrylic on Canvas 121.5 x 121.5cm