Yve te
Coppersmith
This year, the artist’s winning self portrait
meant she became the tenth woman to
take home the $100,000 Archibald Prize
(running since 1921).“I wanted to paint [former president of the Australian
Human Rights Commission] Gillian Triggs’ portrait [for the
2017 Archibald prize] because she hasvalues. She has
really strong, deep-seated beliefs; she gives a stuff about
people. She goes out into the world and makes it better,
and that’s so important, especially at a time when, as an
individual, you don’t feel like you have a voice beyond
Facebook. Painting is my voice, and by painting someone
who values humanity the way she does, I felt like that would
have a lot of impact.
Gillian is incredibly strong and has a deep respect for
humanity; I spent a lot of time with her and always felt
uplifted by her presence. We talked for hours, and she told
me that she has a difficult relationship with emotion: in her
role, when she speaks with any emotion, men immediately
dismiss her. That shocked me; as an artist, your emotions
are everything. But women in positions like Gillian’s are
under so much scrutiny just for doing their job.
The relationship between artist and subject is really
interesting. There’s a bit of privilege that comes with being
the artist; people allow you to see the real them. To the
outside world, Gillian is very professional; she perfectly
articulates the human rights abuses she comes across.
But what I saw was her warmth, generosity and uplifting
spirit. Gillian showed me a leader sometimes has to shape
and alter the way they express their feelings, but that the
feeling itself is the purpose of everything. For an artist, that’s
an amazing lesson.”>
89
Top, $375, skirt, $295,
bothROMANCE WAS
BORN, romancewasborn.
com; heels, $199,
SENSO, senso.com.au;
Yvette’s own earringsWE
ARE
WOMEN
2018