Artist accused of winning prize with ‘imitation’ won Australian award with piece ‘influenced’ by Basquiat

An Australian painter was “clearly influenced” by New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in a major prize-winning work, according to the National Portrait Gallery, after she was accused of winning a separate $20,000 prize with “an imitation” of a Nicholas Harding piece. The National Portrait Gallery has declined to comment further on the marked similarities between a 1982 work by Basquiat, Untitled (Two Heads on Gold), and a work by Lennox Head artist Jane Allan, titled Weight of the Mind’s Periapt. Allan’s painting was a finalist in the prestigious Darling portrait prize in 2022, and won the Art Handler’s award , worth $2,000. Questions were raised about the piece after concerns over Allan’s winning submission to the Gold Coast-based $20,000 Doyles art award last year, which had similarities to a painting by acclaimed Australian artist Nicholas Harding. Basquiat’s piece depicts two robot-like figures side-by-side. The figure on the right has spiky hair, a distinctive nose shaped like an upside down T, white outlined features and spindly arms. The other figure appears to be angry, in a pose that is almost zombie-like. The painting has been described by the artist’s estate as a “vibrant, layered piece” in which Basquiat “[channels] raw energy into two faces that seem to echo and challenge each other, reflecting a sense of duality”. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (Two Heads on Gold). …