Auction of Archibald Prize portrait aids Afghans left behind

When Angus McDonald painted Mariam Veiszadeh, a lawyer, writer and refugee advocate, for the 2019 Archibald Prize he did it in the style of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.

The six-time Archibald Prize finalist liked the juxtaposition of the famous figure of western European painting with a powerful, contemporary Muslim woman who had endured online abuse as a result of her public campaign to call out Islamophobia.

Artist Angus McDonald with sitter Mariam Veiszadeh.Credit:Angus McDonald

“By doing it that way I wanted to challenge all those old-world distinctions of race and religion,” McDonald said.

Now the artist and filmmaker has put the arresting portrait up for a snap auction, with the proceeds to go to a fund established by a fellow artist, Archibald Prize winner Ben Quilty, to raise $1 million for the United Nation’s Refugee Agency.

Veiszadeh and her family fled Afghanistan in 1984 during the Soviet-Afghan War and settled in Australia when she was seven. With the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, she has been trying to help evacuate family and foreign workers out of Taliban-controlled Kabul.

It’s been particularly heartbreaking for Veiszadeh, with members of her extended family qualifying for emergency humanitarian visas as minority Shia Muslims but unable to make it into the airport.

McDonald’s portrait of Veiszadeh, which was a finalist in the 2019 Archibald Prize, is up for auction. Credit:Angus McDonald

Her sister-in-law’s family travelled more than 13 hours, “putting themselves and the lives of their two children, aged four and five, at risk to get to Kabul but unfortunately, the process has been too slow at this end,” she said.

“We went from expecting to evacuate people to now telling people they are to move away from the airport because of the risk of a terrorist attack. People are in limbo, they’ve got nowhere else to go, they are going to be at higher risk of Taliban retaliation knowing that they tried to flee.

“These aren’t numbers â€" Scott Morrison talked about 4000 people â€" these are human beings with hopes and aspirations for a future that are dwindling away with each day.”

Veiszadeh supports the auction and fundraising efforts. “It feels like everyone in the West has effectively abandoned Afghanistan, and the UNHCR will still be there â€" any efforts we can do to support them is vital right now.”

Veiszadeh with her portrait in 2019.Credit:Angus McDonald

Within a couple of hours of putting the portrait up for auction, McDonald had received a bid for $25,000, and he is hoping to more than double that by the time the auction closes at 5pm Friday.

Quilty’s crowdfunding campaign has raised more than $675,000 for the UNHCR. Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes and his wife Annie have offered to match donations dollar for dollar if the goal of $1 million is met.

The portrait had been sitting in a crate in McDonald’s studio since it was returned by the Art Gallery of NSW.

“I was just waiting for some opportunity where I could use it in a way like this. I’m just hoping we can get a good price for it, it’s $25,000 already,” McDonald said. “That money is really important because any extra dollar I can extract will make a lot of difference to the Afghan people on the ground.”

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Linda Morris is an arts writer at The Sydney Morning Herald

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