Ian Smith Ray Hughes ignoring a Sydney view

Born in 1947, Ray Hughes trained as a schoolteacher before taking up art dealing and opening his first gallery in Brisbane in 1969. He has represented the work of Ian Smith since 1971.

The pair have been close friends, mutual confidantes and business partners over the years and have travelled extensively together.

This is the sixth time a portrait of Hughes by Smith has been hung in the Archibald Prize.

‘He’s a very volatile and visual person and I never get bored with painting him,’ says Smith. ‘Each year I feel I give myself a hard act to follow. I had to find another way to out-manoeuvre myself so this year it’s a very black and white painting with some red. It’s actually Ray watching himself on TV.’

Bolted to the side of Smith’s painting in the 1995 Archibald is a real television set with footage of various Ray Hughes interviews, mixed with State of Origin Rugby League games, repeated on a loop.