The Cullen, Prahran 164 Commercial Road Prahran VIC 3181
Dogs have long been a popular subject for artists and this painting is a loving portrait of the artist's dog. The dog is heavily outlined in black and positioned centrally upon a strong monochromatic background. The artist clearly felt a lot of affection for his dog, as portrayed in the broad smile and loving gaze.
Adam Cullen completed an Australia Council residency in Barcelona in 2007. During this time he became fascinated with bullfights. This work is an acknowledgement of the Minotaur series by Picasso, but it is also based directly on a painting by George Frederick Watts from 1885. Cullen has imbued the bull with feminine traits, expressed through a warm palette of reds, pinks and yellows.
Based on a photograph taken of Ned Kelly the day before he was hanged in the old Melbourne Goal on November 1st 1880. Cullen recognises the correlation between the Kelly Gang's activities and the modern day crime world. His interest in criminals derives from a fascination with the 'grey area' of both good and bad aspects at work in the criminal mind.
Adam Cullen was born in Sydney in 1965. The artist was passionate about drawing from a very young age, and as a teenager drew cartoons for a local newspaper. He first gained recognition in the art world when he chained a decomposing pig’s head to his ankle for two weeks. Cullen was associated with the Grunge art movement in the early nineties. During this time he exhibited alongside artists such as Tony Schwensen, Mikala Dwyer and Nike Saavas. In 1997, much to the surprise of his contemporaries, he entered the Archibald prize.
He was hung as a finalist in 1998 and went on to win the prize in 2000 with a portrait of actor David Wenham. He entered the Archibald Prize regularly after winning and was subsequently hung as a finalist nine times. Cullen was instrumental in changing perceptions about the conservative nature of the Archibald Prize.
The artist used a highly personal visual language to address a broad range of topics including crime, masculinity and the relationship between animal and human behaviours. Cullen had a democratic approach to art and would happily merge references to high and low cultural influences in his works. Much of the work made post 2000 consisting of paintings executed in a bold pop style with defining features of drip marks, iridescent colours and black outlines. His works skilfully combine irreverent humour with an astute sensitivity to society.
The Cullen opened in Melbourne November 2009 and remains an ongoing tribute to the artist’s work. The artist died at home in the Blue Mountains on 28 July 2012. For further information about Adam Cullen’s works in the hotel, please see reception.
Cullen graduated from the City Art Institute with a Diploma of Professional Art in 1987 and received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of New South Wales in 1999. The artist’s work has been exhibited widely throughout Australia and abroad since the early 1990s. His work has been include in the following selected exhibitions: Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales (1993); Fluxibelstructures, Kunsthaus Oerlikon, Zurich, Switzerland (1995); Preambles, Australian Perspecta, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1999); Art in the World, Pont Alexandre III, Paris, France (2000); Video-Salon, Week of Art and New Media, Brussels, Belgium (2000); 25th Bienale de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2002); Bitter Sweet, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2002); Identity and Desire, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2005); CRASH (and other worldly pleasures) Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth (2006); Bon Scott Project, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle (2008) and Rough Trade, TANKS Art Centre, Cairns (1997) and Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart (1998). In mid 2008 Cullen’s work was the subject of a major survey exhibition, ADAM CULLEN. LET’S GET LOST, curated by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and was accompanied by a major catalogue published by the gallery. A finalist many times over in the Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, in 2000 he won the Archibald with his composition Portrait of David Wenham 2000. This success was followed by winning the Mosman Art Prize in 2005 and the 2008 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize with Pegasus Flying over Sydney 2008.
A transcript from a speech delivered by Jane O'Neill as The Cullen on August 19th 2012, at a tribute hosted by the Art Series Hotel Group in honour of Adam Cullen, can be found here.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Monash University Gallery The Art Gallery of SA The Art Gallery of Western Australia Art Bank, NSW AMP Australia Kedumba Gallery Australian National Gallery, Canberra, ACT The Gold Coast City Art Gallery, QLD Griffith University, QLD Geelong Art Gallery, VIC The Art Gallery of NSW The National Gallery of Victoria
INSPIRED BY
Albrecht Dürer - Germany 1471–1528
Francisco Goya Y Lucientes - Spain 1746–1828
Francis Bacon - Ireland/England 1909–92
Sidney Nolan - Australia/UK 1917–92
Mike Parr - Australia b1945
Martin Kippenberger – Germany 1953 - 1997
QUOTES
"Endurance is more important than truth"
FOR FURTHER READING
AGNSW Cullen Educations News
Adam Cullen Wikipedia
Wayne Tunnicliffe, Let’s Get Lost, catalogue to accompany survey at AGNSW 15 May – 27 July, 2008
ISBN 9781741740233
Ingrid Perez, Adam Cullen - Scars Last Longer
New Art Series, Craftsman House,2004,
ISBN 0 9751965 2 9
REPRESENTED BY
Heiser Gallery, Brisbane
Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide
Michael Reid in Sydney.
Gallery Ecosse, Exeter, NSW
