He first came to public prominence in the 1943 case over the artistic merits of William Dobell's Archibald Prize-winning portrait of the painter Joshua Smith; a losing entrant claimed the picture was caricature, not portraiture.
The Australian Attorney General, Sir Garfield Barwick, continued to reject the request for Viks, claiming that it could not be met because: the USSR and Australia did not have an extradition treaty; Viks had passed immigration screening processes and; consequently, any such extradition would undermine Australian sovereignty.
Testimony to his mastery are the commissions to paint the portraits of many prominent figures in Australia and overseas including approximately 100 knights of the realm, 23 vice regal portraits in Denmark, nine bishops and archbishops and hundreds of other famous personalities including Don Bradman, Albert Namatjira and Sir Garfield Barwick.
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Snedden decried it as shameful and "worse than any Tammany Hall effort that has ever been made in the United States", and compared it with what he called the "very fine appointment" of Sir Garfield Barwick as Chief Justice of the High Court.