Cairns, 33, a former Illawarra resident, has been a four-time finalist of the prestigious national art prize and on Friday was awarded $100,000 for a Matisse-style abstract.

“The sensitive portrait carries Cairns’s signature playful complexity and this, along with his composition of form and colour, will no doubt draw comparisons with the style of Matisse and other modernist masters,” said Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand.

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The gallery’s president of trustees David Gonski also noted Cairn’s “skill and sensitivity” left a significant impression with all trustees.

But not every critic agreed.

On Saturday, veteran artist and three-time Archibald judge John Olsen declared it was the “worst decision” he’d ever seen, insisting the portrait lacked insight into its subject.

"It's entirely surface, the drawing is just not there, and the structure, which is a summation of what makes a thing good, isn't there," he told Fairfax, also disputing any likeness to Matisse.

"Matisse is to do with hugely sophisticated space. To even compare it to Matisse is totally absurd."

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Former Archibald winner Tim Storrier also slammed the trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW, telling News Limited they could ruin Australia’s most coveted art award.

“They will irreparably damage the prestige of these prizes because the decision-making process will be held in contempt by most artists,” he said.

Cairn’s oil-on-linen depicts his partner Agatha Gothe-Snape sitting on the floor of a bright red room, “composed with love” and was chosen best of 822 entries.

This year’s competition saw an absence of Illawarra artists as finalists except for northern suburbs resident Anh Do, selected for his portrait of Indigenous actor Jack Charles.

The only other local connections were Kim Leutweyler’s portrait of Illawarra sportswoman Michelle Heyman, and northern Illawarra artist Ashley Frost’s painting of Janet Dawson – both finalists.

The Wynne Prize for landscape painting or figure sculpture went to Indigenous artist Betty Kuntiwa Pumani for Antara, while Joan Ross won the Sulman Prize for subject, genre or mural with Oh History, You Lied To Me. 

Last week, Peter Smeeth's portrait of Today show host Lisa Wilkinson won the $1500 Packing Room award.

The Archibald Prize is an open competition held annually since 1921 with works to have been painted in the past year from at least one live sitting.

The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman winners and finalists are exhibited at the gallery until October 22 before touring the country.

With Garry Maddox

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