Late artist claims Blake Prize Angelika Tyrone with Trevor Nickolls's painting Metamorphosis, at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW, Sydney. THE 62nd Blake Prize was awarded posthumously for the first time last night, to Aboriginal painter Trevor Nickolls, who died last year at the age of 63. Nickolls, who was based in Adelaide, painted Metamorphosis with the intention of entering the annual prize for religious art, leaving his agent Angelika Tyrone to carry out his wishes after the artist -- a heavy smoker -- died from complications related to emphysema. Tyrone says in accordance with Nickolls's will the $25,000 prize money will fund an emerging artist's award established in his name to assist Aboriginal artists pursue tertiary studies. This year's judges -- religious lecturer Jay Johnston, artist Tim Johnson and Carriageworks director Lisa Havilah -- sifted through 900 entries to settle on the 73 finalists. The Blake Society's chairman Rod Pattenden, a Uniting Church minister, says the prize money comes from artist entry fees and donations, and the award remains the only major Australian art prize without corporate sponsorship. "We've struggled to get sponsorship because the award doesn't adhere to a particular religious idea, and yet for secular people it's too religious," he says. Being too controversial to me indicates we're in exactly the right place because we're on a nerve centre in Australia between embarrassment and discomfort around matters of belief. The works are on display at Galleries UNSW at the College of Fine Arts, where entries in the 6th Blake Poetry Prize can also be viewed. Winner Anthony Lawrence wrote three of the nine shortlisted works this year; he is the first poet to have multiple poems shortlisted in the same year.