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, he burst onto the Australian art scene with a punk gesture: chaining a pig's head to his ankle for two weeks. The provocation was typical of an artist who spent his career interrogating masculinity, violence, crime and the darker impulses of Australian life.

Stiff offers a glimpse of Cullen's approach to portraiture. A head looms over the page from the right-hand side, rendered in thin, sketchy lines that leave the figure gaunt and corpse-like. The title evokes rigor mortis, the stiffening of the body after death, a reference typical of Cullen's work and his dark sense of humour.

This impression offers rare insight into the artist's process. Marked "w/p" in the lower left corner, it is a working proof, a print the artist kept to study the image and assess its quality before the edition was produced. Hand-signed and exceptionally scarce, it is a different kind of object from the numbered impressions that followed.

Winner of the Archibald Prize in 2000 and a finalist on several other occasions, Cullen was the subject of a major retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2008. His work holds an important place in Australian contemporary art, distinguished by its punk sensibility, dark humour and fearless examination of national identity.

This special working proof is a compelling addition to a collection of Australian contemporary art, particularly for collectors interested in the artist's process and personality.

Adam CULLEN (1965 - 2012)
'Stiff' 2001
Etching on paper
Image Size: 6 x 5 cm
Dimensions: 15 x 13 cm
Signed: Editioned, titled, signed and dated in bottom margin.
Comes with Letter of Provenance
Some small marks of foxing in left margin.
Condition:Very Good.
(c) Adam Cullen / Copyright Agency