The Texaco Children’s Art Competition has never been a photographic contest, but this year’s lineup of winners confirms that, in today’s visual culture, photography rules
Left to right: Charley Bell, Amy O’Brien, Sarah McLoughlin and Megan Hogan
The Texaco Children’s Art Competition has never been a photographic contest, but this year’s lineup of winners confirms that, in today’s visual culture – via the smartphone and screens of other sorts – photography rules. The desire to capture likeness in portraits, whether self-portraits or depictions of types (and occasionally pets) is a dominant strand, more often than not filtered through a camera lens. The fascination of the gaze holds firm, as does the limitless attraction of fine, linear detail for a significant cohort of younger artists and their audience. One formidable category winner, James Noonan, is already a veteran of the direct, tell-it-like-it-is gaze.
It’s no reflection on the competing artists – much more a sign of the times – that, mostly, the portrait format bypasses the need to make a composition or structure an image. Some winners, though, make real efforts to do just that, skilfully drawing viewers into pictorial narratives – Sarah McLoughlin, Amy O’Brien and Sabrina Morgan among them. Not surprisingly, the youngest artists are often the least hidebound, Charles Gallagher with his spirited Moo Moo Rua being a good example. Remarkably, his one-year-old brother Neal joined him among the prizewinners with a boldly abstracted account of Rainbows and Sunshine.
The competition is, remarkably, in its 69th year, and remains an extremely popular series, averaging 20,000 to 30,000 submissions annually. It also serves as an intriguing barometer of youthful visual culture. Prize money is generous, with awards totalling almost €10,000.
This year’s overall winner is Charley Bell from Belfast. Her winning artwork, and those of three other award-winning students – Sarah McLoughlin, Amy O’Brien and Megan Hogan – will represent Ireland at the 24th International High School Arts Festival in Japan in August this year, showing at The National Art Center, Tokyo, from 9 to 20 August.
Aidan Dunne
