01-03-2001

DANIEL GETS HUNG UP

A painting of silverchair's Daniel Johns has made the shortlist for Australia's premiere art award - the Archibald Prize. The long running annual competition specialises in portrait paintings and regularly attracts well over 500 entries from throughout the country. We can exclusively reveal that the painting of Daniel has been selected as one of the 25 - 30 finalists for this year's prize. The Archibald Prize winner will be announced this Wednesday.

The work was created by acclaimed artist, Kim Spooner. Daniel visited her Sydney studio twice over the last few months to sit for the painting.

According to silverchair's management, Daniel has received "about half a dozen" other requests in recent years from artists seeking to paint him for the Archibald but "the timing was never right" on these other occasions. This year, with Daniel less tied up by band commitments he was open to the idea of being painted and when he saw some of Kim Spooner's other work he agreed to take part in the experiment.

If you're in Sydney you can check out this painting at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Just Announced - The painting of Daniel didn't win the Archibald - a painting of
Shakespearean actor John Bell took the prize.