Bali Nine inmate Myuran Sukumaran enters Archibald Prize

Bali Nine death row inmate Myuran Sukumaran
with his Archibald Prize entry, a self-portrait

ARCHIBALD Prize entrants often paint famous people. Myuran Sukumaran jokes he has painted an infamous person.

“Look where I am”, he says casting his eyes around. “There are not exactly famous people in here for me to paint”, he says of Kerobokan Jail in Bali, his home for close to the last decade.

Instead the death row inmate chose a self-portrait for his entry in the prestigious art prize. His self-portrait was flown back to Australia and will be lodged this week.

Sukumaran doesn’t expect his entry will be accepted — many are not — but for him it’s not about that, it’s about having a goal and something to aim for.

“Most likely I won’t get accepted in the judging. But it is something to aim for and something to work towards ... Aiming for something high,” he says of his decision to do a painting, at the urging of his mentor Ben Quilty.

Himself an Archibald Prize-winning artist, Quilty has been mentoring Sukumaran and has conducted art classes inside the jail. It is the second time Sukumaran has painted an entry from the jail.

Sukumaran’s passion is his painting, which he only took up in 2010. He has set up art classes and runs an art studio at the jail. Soon an art gallery, showcasing and selling the prisoner art, will open in front of the jail’s main gates.

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Source: News.com.au, June 22, 2014

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