''Renaissance'' man portrait of Jimmy Barnes wins Packing Room Prize

Young Sydney artist Jamie Preisz accepted the 2018 Packing Room Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW on behalf of his late sister Bella for an emotionally laden portrait he painted of rock musician and ''Renaissance'' man Jimmy Barnes.

The winning portrait of Barnes posed as a prizefighter alluded to Barnes' Glaswegian father (a boxer), the musician's battle with depression, his violent upbringing, and a shared commitment by painter and sitter to trigger a public conversation about mental health issues.

Jamie Preisz stands shoulder to shoulder with his subject Jimmy Barnes to call attention to depression and mental illness.
Photo: Jessica Hromas

''This painting came out of my own grief because in December I lost my little sister to suicide,'' Preisz said. ''Jimmy posed for this painting and I brought everything I had into it.''

Barnes said Preisz captured something he had been trying to say in his two bestsellers, Working Class Boy and Working Class Man. Together the memoirs have sold more than 400,000 copies. The latter has been shortlisted for biography book of the year which is to be announced tonight (Thursday) at the Australian Book Industry Awards, a category he won last year for the first book.

''Jamie is a very, very brave man, to pick himself up from the tragedy as he has and work and dedicate this to his sister, I'm thrilled to be part of it,'' Barnes said. ''It sums up my past and my future.

''I came from a tough working-class background and we had to fight to survive every day. I watched my father who was a boxing champion strap his hands before a fight, and I could see that look of determination in his eyes when he strapped his hands, in that mode. My father had many fights ahead of him, some we knew about, some we didn't, some he would win, some he wouldn't.

''But he never laid down. My dad just kept getting up. He had to fight for his life and so did I. I fought for peace of mind and I've fought against demons that have very nearly beaten me and killed me. But I'm still here, just as I am in Jamie's [portrait], prepared to fight.''

The $1500 Packing Room Prize is selected by gallery staff who receive, unpack and hang entries. Following the retirement of veteran head packer Steve Peters last year, new man Brett Cuthbertson commanded 52 per cent of the vote.

The ''Barnsey'' portrait arrived the first day of entries, Cuthbertson said, and was the ''only contender the whole way through''.

Finalists for the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes and the Young Archie competition were also unveiled on Thursday. Of the 58 Archibald Prize finalists, 21 were self-portraits from notable artists such as Robert Hannaford, James Powditch, Tiger Yaltangki, Nicholas Harding, Vincent Namatjira and Del Kathryn Barton.

Fourteen works captured fellow artists including Joan Ross, Guy Warren and Susan and Peter O'Doherty. Guy Pearce and Alison Whyte, wearing an Elizabethan neck ruff, are among five actors celebrated on canvas.

Winners of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes will be announced Friday, May 11.

Archibald Prize finalist: Anne Middleton's Guy.
Photo: Jenni Carter

Preisz approached Barnes through girlfriend Kitty Callaghan, who was friends with Barnes' youngest daughter Elly-May. Barnes, who has been painted by Archibald Prize winner Ben Quilty and is notoriously hard to persuade to sit for the Archibalds, understood Preisz's grief and sat for an hour at a Southern Highlands warehouse.

Only his second entry to the Archibald, Preisz was partly inspired by Renaissance portraiture. ''I wanted to get something more vulnerable, as you can see his face is not in full light, it was really important for me to capture that,'' he said.