Art & Australia congratulates Del Kathryn Barton winner of the 2008 Archibald Prize for You are what is most beautiful about me a self portrait with kell and arabella 2008. Australia`s premier art magazine is proud of a long and nurturing relationship with Barton who was the inaugural winner of Art & Australia`s ANZ Private Bank Emerging Artist Award in 2004. Chosen by the magazine`s then editorial adviser Andrew Sayers Director of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra Del Kathryn`s girl # 8 2004 appeared on the back cover of Art & Australia Spring 2004 issue. Three years later Barton was commissioned to create a unique artwork for the magazine. Working closely with Art & Australia`s editorial team she helped fashion 10 pages within the March 2008 issue with her painting or make myself a space to inhabit 2007 gracing the current front cover. Here even the magazine`s logo is hand-drawn by the artist with her signature playful polka dots. Barton is quoted in her recent exhibition catalogue (Del Kathryn Barton Karen Woodbury Gallery 2008) saying `Thank you Art & Australia! What an honour to be asked to create a painting for the cover of your beautiful and enduring magazine! Lucky me!` In addition to the current issue of Art & Australia Del Kathryn was commissioned to create a limited-edition colour lithograph as part of the magazine`s ongoing initiative of promoting a broader more accessible form of collecting. Del Kathryn`s the last night of my life with cat 2007 is in a collector`s edition of 30. Art & Australia has long admired Del Kathryn`s artistic honesty which translates so readily through her aesthetically seductive work and it is a particular pleasure to see her practice now embraced and appreciated by a wider general audience.