Adam Cullen merges social satire with technicolour excess. An ‘enfant terrible’ of the art world, he launched onto the Australian art scene by chaining a pig’s head to his ankle for two weeks. This punk stunt was followed by a career spent painting tough, uncompromising and challenging subjects, captured with a pop art twist.

Cullen’s ‘Leda and the Swan’ explores the enduring eponymous myth. The tale of Zeus taking the form of a swan to impregnate Spartan Queen Leda, Leda and the Swan recurs throughout art history, painted by Leonardo Da Vinci through to Sidney Nolan. It is an ambivalent myth, retold as erotic, threatening, and epic. In Cullen’s golden version, a conversation with myth itself, a wild-haired woman erupts from the swan.

Exploring masculinity, crime and animalism, Cullen’s work is imbued with an unexpected vulnerability. In his lifetime, he was a multi-time Archibald Prize finalist, honoured with a 2008 retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and an Art Hotel in Prahran, cementing him as one of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists.

This hand-signed artist proof comes with a Letter of Provenance and will invigorate collectors of pop and contemporary art or those seeking an edge for their space.

Adam CULLEN (1965 - 2012)
'Leda and the Swan' 2010
Archival pigment on paper
Edition: Artist Proof
Image Size: 101 x 133 cm
Paper Size: 113 x 147 cm 
Signed: Editioned, signed and dated in margin
Comes with a Letter of Provenance

Condition: Excellent

(c) Adam Cullen / Copyright Agency