On the face of it, Finding The Archibald is an ABC arts series celebrating the centenary of the nation’s most popular arts prize! But beneath the title lies an intriguing three-part adventure into our identity as Australians, from who we were 100 years ago to who we are today. In short it’s the social history of Australia told through the prism of 100 years of Archibald portraiture.
Grounded in the arts, Finding The Archibald is sprinkled with history and delivered with aplomb by Rachel Griffiths, a bona fide art lover whose life has been surrounded by art: her mother is an artist and her husband is also an artist.
It follows a dual-narrative plot: Rachel is on the hunt for one Archibald portrait she believes captures the changing face of Australia while Natalie Wilson, a curator from the Art Gallery of NSW, is on a quest for 100 portraits for the gallery’s centenary exhibition to mark the milestone.
With her mission to plunge through time and space to find one Archibald portrait, Rachel leads the audience on a cultural romp that straddles high art and factual entertainment. Along the way she rubs shoulders with an A-list of the arts world: Ben Quilty, Penelope Seidler, Wendy Whiteley, Guy Warren, Tony Albert, Wendy Sharpe, Abdul Abdullah, Vincent Fantauzzo and Asher Keddie…
And her treasure hunt takes us into underground bunkers and secret vaults: at Old Parliament House, underneath new Parliament House, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, the Art Gallery of NSW and its secret vault at an undisclosed location…
