Robert Hannaford and Big hART celebrate a 28 year creative partnership.
Big hART, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, and State Library SA are honoured to invite community members to the opening of ‘Hannaford and Big hART,’ an exhibition celebrating the 28 year creative partnership between Australia’s most prolific portrait artist, Robert ‘Alf’ Hannaford, and renowned social change and arts company, Big hART.
The show includes a collection of dynamic and moving realist portraits painted on stage, in rehearsals, in homes, at workplaces and on country by Alf Hannaford to celebrate and elevate the extraordinary people at the centre of Big hART’s work. Big hART uses portraiture in its projects as it’s a time-honoured way to bestow respect. Having a portrait artist of Hannaford’s virtuosity paint people from Australia’s most marginalised and hidden communities sends the message that their lives are just as important as the politician’s he’s known for painting.
Robert ‘Alf’ Hannaford is a South Australian Artist who currently lives near Riverton SA with his wife, artist Alison Mitchell. Hannaford was the political cartoonist for the Adelaide Advertiser from 1964 to 1967 but is best known for his realist oil portraiture of well-known subjects like Dame Joan Sutherland, Donald Bradman, Paul Keating, and Bob Hawke. He has won the Doug Moran Portrait Prize and has been selected as a finalist in the Archibald Prize an astounding 27 times, winning the People’s Choice Award 3 times.
Big hART is Australia’s leading arts and social change organisation. Designing and delivering transformative projects to address complex social issues. Partnering with virtuosic artists we bring them into communities to collaborate and create authentic stories which illuminate local injustice. In turn these stories are presented to mainstream audiences to help raise awareness. This approach builds public support for change and helps to protect vulnerable people.
Robert Hannaford and Big hART opened on 17 November, 2023 at 6pm.
Image: Robert HANNAFORD, Trevor Jamieson as Albert Namatjira, oil on canvas.
