An Australian painter is facing allegations that she won a $20,000 art prize with an imitation of a work by acclaimed artist Nicholas Harding, while a separate prize-winning piece was acknowledged to be clearly influenced by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Doyles Art Award Controversy
Jane Allan, an artist from Lennox Head, won the Doyles art award in the landscape painting category for her work Seaside Explorers. Nearly a year later, the prize committee issued a statement saying the painting appeared to be an imitation of Harding's Two Estuary Figures.
Both paintings depict two figures on a beach—one bending down as if about to pick something up, the other turned away with arms towards their face. Both are impasto-style works with thickly layered paint, and the direction of brush or palette strokes follows similar patterns. However, Harding's work is small (20 x 25cm), while Allan's is significantly larger (120 x 90cm).
Committee Response
"Never did we expect a threat from within our own art community," the Doyles prize administrators said in a Facebook post. "It appears as though one of last year's winning works is an imitation of a Nicholas Harding artwork." They expressed anger, stating, "It goes against everything we stand for."
The committee, which is entirely voluntary, said it was taking the allegation seriously and would investigate ways to make the judging process more robust. Gold Coast councillor Glenn Tozer told the ABC that lawyers were discussing possible recovery of the prize money.
Darling Portrait Prize Similarities
Questions also arose about Allan's painting Weight of the Mind's Periapt, a finalist in the 2022 Darling portrait prize that won the Art Handler's award worth $2,000. The work bears striking similarities to Basquiat's 1982 piece Untitled (Two Heads on Gold).
Basquiat's painting shows two robot-like figures side by side, with spiky hair, upside-down T-shaped noses, white-outlined features, and spindly arms. Allan's painting features an almost identically shaped and detailed figure, with similar white outlining and spindly arms, alongside a melange of words, names, numbers, and animal images.
A National Portrait Gallery spokesperson acknowledged that art handlers had noted the artist was clearly influenced by Basquiat. "While the gallery regularly reviews the terms and conditions of its prizes, it has always required artists to declare that they are submitting an original artwork," the spokesperson said. The gallery declined to comment further.
Artist's Background
In her artist notes for Weight of the Mind's Periapt, Allan described it as a portrait of her inspirational primary carer, Warren, who looked after her after a spinal cord injury from a truck accident. For Seaside Explorers, she wrote about carefree summer holidays at the beach, inviting viewers to reminisce about their own childhood memories.
The Guardian was unable to reach Allan for comment. The Basquiat estate has also been approached for comment.
Harding, a nine-time Wynne prize finalist and Archibald prize winner known for his impasto style, died in 2022. Basquiat, a neo-expressionist artist whose works explored identity, race, and power, died in 1988.
