John Safran as
David and Goliath.
Watch the film. (3 mins)
For the Archibald portrait prize, in Sydney Australia, Artist Avraham Vofsi reached out to Writer John Safran to sit for his first entry into the competition.
This portrait depicts the story of King David over a defeated Goliath, where John Safran is shown as both the victor, and the beheaded.
Artist Statement
This year is Avraham's first time entering the Archibald Portrait competition. For his first entry it was important for him to focus on sharing a Jewish story, featuring a Jewish sitter. Growing up in Melbourne, John Safran had a huge impact on Avraham. He first saw John in his ABC show Music Jamboree. Upon reflection, John Safran was the most visibly Jewish public figure on TV, engaging with his Judaism in a way that young Avraham was captivated by.
John sits for Avraham in his studio.
Approaching John, Avraham wanted to focus on a story from the Tanakh (The Hebrew Scriptures). Building on his previous portraits working with Indigenous Australians, Pacific islanders and other sitters not usually portrayed in oils, this piece would be about Jewish people reclaiming our own narratives. After exploring different interesting stories, they settled on the David and Goliath stories. They started by finding previous examples of that story in painting, drawing inspiration from artists such as Caravaggio and Gentileschi to Arthur Szyk, each depicting David holding the head of a defeated Goliath. This is when it clicked: What if John was holding up his own head?
"Visualizing John as King David as a real person, our actual ancestor that we are connected to is a powerful experience for me as a Jewish person."
- Avraham
Most previously depicted versions of this story had very little to do with Jewish people. One of the aims of piece is to be as historically accurate as possible. That is why John wears a Sudra (Judean head covering), has Peyot (sidelocks) and you can see his Tzitzit (ritual tassels) coming out from under his ancient Tallit (prayer shawl).
“Then it clicked. When I head out on a book or doco adventure I’m charged with taking down a giant - a cigarette company or a media mogul - but I always end up the fool, just taking down myself. So why not have me gripping the beheaded head of me? There also felt something Buddhist about beheading oneself - sacrificing your ego on the path to enlightenment. One more failure for my list. I go out to do something Jewish and end up doing something Buddhist.”
- John
Designing the portrait was a collaborative effort between the two, bouncing ideas for what should be in the painting, and how it would be rendered. While of course Avraham did the painting, John was able to shape how it was seen in the portrait too, with particular focus on what the facial expression would be and the meaning it would create.
The frame was a final part of the project created by local framers Rich and Davis. The design was guided by Avraham with the notion to continue the story of the portrait onto the frame.