Gina Rinehart: Mining magnate demands to have portraits removed

Swimming Queensland boss, Kevin Hasemann, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Mr Chalmers had approached the body on behalf of a group of about 20 swimmers who argued the portraits were unfair and unflattering.

So he too wrote to the NGA.

“I’ve seen the artworks there, and I wouldn’t like to be depicted that way,” Mr Hasemann told the SMH.

“Probably if I were famous, I’d hope that someone would want to say, ‘Well, listen, hold on, that’s not nice’.”

Mr Namatjira’s response to the criticism was simple.

“I paint the world as I see it,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

The 40-year-old is the great-grandson of famed watercolourist Albert Namatjira and has continued his family’s legacy – in 2020 becoming the first Indigenous person to win Australia’s top portrait contest, the Archibald Prize.

He’s long painted with an exaggerated and witty brush, and says his work is designed to make the audience think about influence and privilege.

“Why has this Aboriginal bloke painted these powerful people? What is he trying to say?” he said.

“I paint people who are wealthy, powerful or significant – people who have had an influence on this country, and on me personally, whether directly or indirectly, whether for good or for bad.

“Some people might not like it, other people might find it funny, but I hope people look beneath the surface and see the serious side too.”