Check out my trailer for this year's Archibald Prize entry: The Sacrifice of the Model by Mertim Gokalp. The Sacrifice of the Model is a contemporary take on a 17th century painting for the highly renowned Archibald Prize. The painting, is a reconstruction of Caravaggio’s The Entombment of Christ composition, you may remember the painting from the tattoo on my left arm. However, my version is not just a replica or a copy, it is a referral to today’s art-scene and a criticism of all the artists, including myself, on how much is sacrificed…
The model used in The Sacrifice of the Model, Aimee Fitzgerald, being held/worshiped by a bunch of renowned, Archibald Award finalist artists Nick Stratopoulos, Marcus Callum, Kathrin Longhurst and Lucy West-Sooby. While some artists fear the death of the model in the composition, one is only concerned with her modern day narcissism. The true figure with true sadness is the mother, or from a Caravaggio-point-of-view Virgin/Holy Mary, embodied by my wife, perhaps because she knows true sacrifice and the true price/worth for the arts.
I invite you to look behind the canvas, to think about all the models, artists, artist’s wives, all who sacrificed sometimes an ear [Van Gogh], vision [Monet], or the ability to hear [Beethoven] for the sake of art and recognition. Clearly, art is dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty, beyond what can be valued, rich or rare, no less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour*...
*Section taken from Shakespeare’s King Lear
