Vietnam's President Ngô Đình Diệm; Frederick G. Donner, the Chairman of General Motors; and Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaysia. In 1964, Dobell exhibited in a major retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the first monograph of his work was written by James Gleeson. The Archibald Prize controversy In 1943, Dobell's portrait of Joshua Smith, titled "Portrait of an artist", was awarded the Archibald Prize. This was contested in 1944 by two unsuccessful entrants (Mary Edwell-Burke and Joseph Wolinski), who brought a lawsuit against Dobell and the Gallery's Board of Trustees in the Supreme Court of New South Wales on the grounds that the painting was a caricature and therefore not eligible for the prize. Public opinion was sharply divided, with most viewers puzzled by the unexpected portrait. One art critic was highly laudatory: Creating a man in the simplicity of everyday existence, Dobell reaches profundity by his understanding of this life which, at this instant, is realised and merged with his own nature. During his courtroom defense of the piece Dobell stated:"Art fails to be Art if you fail to select for your design. All artists must do that and I did it."The claim was dismissed and the award was upheld, but the ordeal left Dobell emotionally disturbed and he retreated in 1945 to his sister's home at Wangi Wangi on Lake Macquarie, where he began to paint landscapes. The Supreme Court opinion by Mister Justice Roper said: The picture in question is characterized by some startling exaggeration and distortion, clearly intended by the artist, his technique being too brilliant to admit of any other conclusion. It bears, nevertheless, a strong degree of likeness to the subject and is, I think, undoubtedly a pictorial representation of him. I find it a fact that it is a portrait within the meaning of the words in the will, and consequently the trustees did not err in admitting it to the competition. Death and legacy Dobell was a very private man, known almost always as "Bill". He died on 13 May 1970 in the City of Lake Macquarie suburb of of hypertensive heart disease. The sole beneficiary of his estate was the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, which was founded on 19 January 1971 and awards the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial, which is named in his honour. He was cremated with Anglican rites and his ashes interred