Adam Cullen turns some of Australia’s most enduring cultural archetypes into images that are confronting, irreverent and impossible to ignore. A self-described enfant terrible, Cullen exploded onto the Australian art scene with the audacious punk gesture of chaining a pig’s head to his ankle for two weeks. The provocation was characteristic of an artist who spent his career interrogating masculinity, violence, crime and the darker impulses of Australian life.

Cullen’s ‘Body’ depicts a nude figure awkwardly propped up. Eschewing the tendency of art to idealise bodies, Cullen’s figure is imperfect and vulnerable – positioned away from the viewer, prone to our inspection. It is deliberately ambiguous, either an image of rest, death or capture. For Cullen, art represented a realm to explore the darker edges of human existence – violence, impotence, missing resolve and mortality.

A multi-time Archibald Prize finalist and winner, he was the subject of a major retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2008. His work occupies an important place in the story of Australian contemporary art, distinguished by its punk sensibility, dark humour and fearless examination of Australian identity.

Editioned at just 10 impressions, ‘Body’ is a museum-quality work with an impression held at the National Gallery of Australia. Hand-signed and exceptionally rare, this may be diminutive in size but it promises impact, representing a sterling addition to collections of Australian contemporary art – particularly for collectors drawn to Cullen’s unapologetic vision.

Adam CULLEN (1965 - 2012)
'Body' 2001
Etching on paper
Edition of 10
Image Size: 5 x 6 cm
Dimensions: 23 x 19 cm
Signed: Editioned, titled, signed and dated in bottom margin.
 
Comes with Letter of Provenance
 
Another impression of this work is represented at the National Gallery of Australia, accession number: 2007.1549.44
 
Condition: Excellent
 
(c) Adam Cullen / Copyright Agency