Artist accused of winning prize with ‘imitation’ won Australian award with piece ‘influenced’ by Basquiat

Jane Allan’s winning Darling portrait prize painting has raised eyebrows after her Doyles art award piece was compared to artist Nicholas Harding An Australian painter was “clearly influenced” by New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in a major prize-winning work, according to the National Portrait Gallery, after she was accused of winning a separate $20,000 prize with “an imitation” of a Nicholas Harding piece. The National Portrait Gallery has declined to comment further on the marked similarities between a 1982 work by Basquiat, Untitled (Two Heads on Gold), and a work by Lennox Head artist Jane Allan, titled Weight of the Mind’s Periapt. Continue reading...

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Vinita Duniphin Culture Source report

What happened

According to The Guardian’s source item, Artist accused of winning prize with ‘imitation’ won Australian award with piece ‘influenced’ by Basquiat, Jane Allan’s winning Darling portrait prize painting has raised eyebrows after her Doyles art award piece was compared to artist Nicholas Harding An Australian painter was “clearly influenced” by New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in a major prize-winning work, according to the National Portrait Gallery, after she was accused of winning a separate $20,000 prize with “an imitation” of a Nicholas Harding piece. The National Portrait Gallery has declined to comment further on the marked similarities between a 1982 work by Basquiat, Untitled (Two Heads on Gold), and a work by Lennox Head artist Jane Allan, titled Weight of the Mind’s Periapt. Continue reading…

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Culture file for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-06-24T03:47:46+00:00.

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Primary source: Artist accused of winning prize with ‘imitation’ won Australian award with piece ‘influenced’ by Basquiat via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

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