by Andrew Taylor, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 April, 2016
Vincent Fantauzzo still gets goosebumps when recalling the moment he unveiled his portrait of Kudditji Kngwarreye.
The Anmatyerre elder and renowned artist was in an Alice Springs hospital recuperating from illness when Fantauzzo showed him the portrait he had painted.
"At that point he couldn't talk much," Fantauzzo says. "He was quite unwell.
"I get goosebumps thinking about it. That's the time when I realised what he meant to me and what he taught me." Fantauzzo says Kngwarreye was shy when they first met, yet the duo soon developed a bond.
Vincent Fantauzzo's journey to Central Australia to paint portraits of Indigenous artists has been documented on film.
"He kind of looks like a character from Lord of the Rings but there's nothing fake about him," he says. "Everything is genuine and real."
Kngwarreye is one of five Indigenous artists painted by Fantauzzo, a four-time Archibald People's Choice winner whose portraits of celebrities, including wife Asher Keddie and Oscar winner Charlize Theron, have struck a chord with the public.
His portraits of the desert artists are displayed as part of five triptychs in Last Contact, Fantauzzo's first Australian exhibition in five years at Nanda/Hobbs Contemporary gallery in Sydney's CBD.
Vincent Fantauzzo won the 2013 Archibald People's Choice award for "Love Face", a portrait of his wife Asher Keddie.
Each triptych features a portrait together with a painting by the Indigenous artist and a landscape by Fantauzzo. They had all sold for prices of $264,000 and $319,000 prior to the opening of the exhibition.
The 38-year-old Melbourne artist painted Kngwarreye, Linda Syddick, Wentja Napaltjarri, Gloria Petyarre and Tommy Watson during a series of visits to central Australia last year that were filmed by documentary maker Richard Keddie, the uncle of his actress wife.
Fantauzzo's original intention was to paint landscapes, and he admits he knew little about Indigenous culture.
Vincent Fanatauzzo won the 2013 Archibald People's Choice award for "Love Face", a portrait of his wife, actor Asher Keddie.
"I just couldn't believe, and this sounds terrible, that this culture is there and we have no idea about it," he says. "I didn't really have an interest in it and that made me feel terrible."
But Fantauzzo soon became entranced by the work of the desert artists, who he says appear not to be influenced by the art world.
"They don't go to art school," he says. "They're just sitting down on the floor, choosing their colours and telling their story.
"The other thing is in their culture everyone has the right to be an artist and tell their story and make art. And they don't judge each other the same way we do."
Despite their different backgrounds, Fantauzzo developed an easy rapport with the Indigenous artists.
"We had such a good laugh and we sung songs and I slept in swags and went out camping and pretended to eat kangaroo tail and then went and got a pizza," he says.
Fantauzzo is engagingly modest, batting away compliments ("I'm just really shit at other things") despite his successful art practice.
His portraits of Heath Ledger, child actor Brandon Walters, his son Luca and wife Asher Keddie all won the Archibald People's Choice award. His portrait of Baz Luhrmann won the 2012 Doug Moran Portrait Prize and Archibald Packing Room Prize.
Fantauzzo says he does not paint people based on their notoriety. His current subjects are music promoter Michael Gudinski and businessman and NBN chairman Ziggy Switkowski.
"I always choose people to paint who I can learn from, so if I paint a CEO of a bank or a judge, part of my deal with them is I get to follow them around, stalk them a little bit."
Keddie was an exception to the stalking rule: "I think she was stalking me."
"I actually had no idea about Asher except for what I'd been told by Matt [Moran]," Fantauzzo adds. "I actually had to google Asher before she came and I think she probably did the same."
Fantauzzo entered his portrait of Kngwarreye in the 2015 Archibald Prize as well as the Indigenous artist's landscape in the Wynne Prize. Neither painting was shown in the finalist exhibition.
But Fantauzzo is philosophical about the rejection by the Art Gallery of NSW trustees, who judge both prizes.
His success, including his appointment as adjunct professor at Melbourne's RMIT University, is more remarkable given Fantauzzo suffered dyslexia and left school at 13, unable to read and write.
"The art world I struggle with a little [because] to me a lot of art is a visual language and I think it should be understood by anyone," he says. "I think everyone should be able to have an opinion and be an artist."
Last Contact is at Nanda/Hobbs Contemporary until April 15.
Photo: Vincent Fantauzzo with his portrait of fellow artist Kudditji Kngwarreye. Photo: Dallas Kilponen, SMH
