Painting of 'Leaking Assange' wins award

A painting of Julian Assange taking a leak has won this year's Bald Archy prize.

Winning portrait: The painting called Bad Ass-Ange by Xavier Ghazi shows Assange urinating into Uncle Sam's top hat.

A painting of Julian Assange taking a leak has won this year's Bald Archy prize. The caricature by French artist Xavier Ghazi portrays the WikiLeaks founder with his trousers around his ankles, urinating into a top hat with the US flag on it.

The Bald Archyu00a0-- a parody of the Archibald Prize for portraiture ufffd is a competition of humorous works of art, making fun of Australian celebrities and politicians. The exhibition and prize is advertised as the only one in the world judged by a sulphur-crested cockatoo named Maude.

There were 46 finalists in this year's competition, with ''the two Jules'', Julia Gillard and Julian Assange dominating the competition, founder Peter Batey said at the announcement in Sydney yesterday.

Ghazi said he had first thought of calling his painting Pissing Off The Empire. ''Having a leak in Uncle Sam's hat is pissing off the empire,'' he told reporters. ''It's not as much about the US as it is about global power and instruments of domination.'' It was Ghazi's fourth time to win the $5,000 prize, now in its 18th year. Ghazi has previously won the competition three times -- in 2007, 2004 and 2002u00a0-- the first for a painting of swimmer Ian Thorpe as a semi-shark.

He said the win was particularly meaningful to him as he has had ''a horrible three or four past years''.
''Professionally I lost my teaching jobs, I lost my job for a newspaper I used to work with and I'm turning blind in my right eye,'' he said

Bald Archy
The Bald Archy is an Australian art prize, a parody of the Archibald Prize, an important portraiture award. It usually includes cartoons or humorous works making fun of Australian celebrities. It is judged by Maude, a cockatoo. It began in 1994 at the Coolac Festival of Fun, in the tiny town of Coolac near Gundagai, New South Wales but is now a popular event presented in Sydney, Melbourne and other locations.

Caricatured
Prime Minister Julia Gillard was portrayed as Mona Lisa. Former NSW premier Kristina Keneally was a popular subject and was caricatured as a mermaid and a big-busted superhero. Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke was also portrayed.