IN winning the 2015 Archibald prize, Newcastle artist Nigel Milsom has further enhanced an artistic reputation that was already in good standing through his win in Australia’s richest art prize, the $150,000 Doug Moran Portrait Prize in 2013, and the $30,000 Sulman Prize in 2012.
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His portrait of barrister Charles Waterstreet – the inspiration for, and a co-creator of, the TV series Rake – was a widespread critics’ prediction for this year’s $100,000 Archibald prize, the nation’s highest-profile art competition.
But Milsom’s choice of Waterstreet as a subject was no accidental choice.
Waterstreet was the barrister who represented Milsom during his initial sentencing over serious criminal charges that are at least partly responsible for his fame. Milsom was sentenced to six-and-a-half years jail for robbing a Sydney convenience store in April 2012 while armed with a tomahawk and heavily under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
He pleaded guilty to the armed robbery, committed with his drug dealer.
Waterstreet had argued Milsom was battling mental illness at the time.
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal eventually found there were serious procedural errors during the sentencing and Milsom was released after about a year behind bars, served mostly at Cessnock Correctional Centre.
When accepting the Moran prize on his behalf, Milsom’s art agent Kerry Crowley tried to steer the media’s interest away from his crime and on to his art. But human nature means that the public will inevitably see his work and his drug history as interlinked. At least for now.
The two subjects have an unfortunate history of entanglement. Archibald dual winner Brett Whiteley spent his life battling heroin addiction, and eventually died a lonely death in a motel room, aged 53.
Well-known Victorian painter Howard Arkley met a similar fate in 1999, aged 48.
Milsom, who turned 40 on Thursday, is hopefully on top of his drug problems because he is clearly a singular talent.
As someone raised and trained in Newcastle, Milsom is following in the celebrated footsteps of Sir William Dobell, who won the Archibald in 1943, 1948 and 1959. Dobell’s 1948 entry portrayed another much-loved artist, Margaret Olley, who had a house on The Hill in Newcastle from the 1960s.
The other recent Archibald winner with notable Hunter links is John Olsen, who won the prize in 2005 and who was born in Newcastle and spent his early childhood years in the city.
Reviewing a Milsom exhibition, Newcastle Herald art critic Una Rey said the mainly black and white works were ‘‘infected, almost bruised with colour’’, and Sydney Morning Herald critic John McDonald said his Waterstreet was ‘‘vampiric’’ and ‘‘hard to go past’’. It appears Milsom has been wrestling with his demons, and his angels, on canvas. But with three major art prizes to his credit, the world, with all of its opportunity, is at his feet.
