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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  28 Oct 2014 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  64
• Lot Description:
  Adam Cullen
  (1965-2012)
  Joe Byrne's Corpse Dancing 2009
  acrylic on canvas
  183 x 152 cm
  signed, titled and dated verso
• Provenance:
  Private Collection, Melbourne
• Exhibited:
  Adam Cullen: Iron Mask, The Ned Kelly Series, 22 July - 29 July 2010, p. 5 (illustrated)
• References:
  Ken McGregor, Adam Cullen: Iron Mask: The Ned Kelly Series, Black Rat Projects, London, 2010, p. 4, p. 5 (illustrated)
• Notes:
  Joe Byrne's Corpse Dancing was included in the innovative and lauded Adam Cullen: Iron Mask: The Ned Kelly Series exhibition in London in 2010. The works in this series, completed between 2008 and 2010, reinterpret the mythology surrounding Ned Kelly. This series provides a more irreverent and bipartisan perspective than that of Sidney Nolan's Kelly Series and, interestingly, Nolan is one of the few artists that Cullen respected. This is a gripping self portrait of Cullen as Kelly's famous death mask. One of the original death masks thought to be of Kelly is on display in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. Cullen's images have shock value. They are confronting, unsettling, often monstrous. The artist has suggested that we look at his works through the lens of television; something to be looked at and enjoyed in the moment. Cullen also reflected, ÒI suppose I look for the lowest common denominators that people are going to recognise and, if you do that, it's almost automatically esoteric because people aren't used to associating low things with high art.Ó1 In Cullen's Ned Kelly Series, he Ò...dismembers the stories and weaves his own version of the personalities involved in the drama of 1878-80. Ultimately, Cullen asks us what has changed in 120 years of Antipodean criminal activity? His answer: 'It's still about sex, drugs and guns.'Ó2 He explores the concepts of the underdog, the tension between the status quo and an 'Anglo-Celtic identity crisis'.3 There are also a number of humorous portraits of Kelly in the series - one with a horned helmut and holding a smoking gun set against a garish fuchsia backdrop, another with the outlaw in drag standing alongside a noose hanging over a bag of opium, and yet another with Kelly clad in his trademark helmut and armour but this time in iron underwear too. Ralph Hobbs highlights the importance of Joe Byrne's Corpse Dancing in the exhibition catalogue, saying: ÒOne of the most confronting images in the exhibition is that of Joe Byrne. It is based on one of only two extant photographs of Ned's comrade and shows the handsome Joe Byrne's lifeless body strung up on the door of the Benalla police lock-up. Cullen appropriates this famous image in all its original grotesqueness, transforming Joe Byrne into a blaze of movement and colour. Initially, he appears as a dancing leprechaun - but Cullen is firm in his view that the Irishman Byrne, a devout Catholic, now dances in heaven. The artist's personal resonance with the identity of Byrne is palpable. Both demonstrating a sharp wit and intellect, and both suffering the trials of addiction. His opium addiction from an early association with Chinese miners in the Beechworth goldfields ultimately manifested as a full-blown addiction in the opium dens.Ó4 In spite of Cullen's ostensible antidisestablishmentarian stance, he has been embraced by public and private collectors alike and endorsed by influential art prizes and accolades. Cullen is, in fact, perhaps best known for his striking Archibald Prize-winning portrait of David Wenham in 2000, which successfully challenged the conservative prevailing tradition of Australia's most famous and long-established portrait prize. He went on to become Australia's representative at the 25th Sao Paulo International Biennale in Brazil in 2002. The Art Gallery of New South Wales honoured the artist with a mid-career survey show in 2008 entitled Let's get lostÊand in 2006 Penrith Regional Art Gallery mounted a ten-year retrospective of his works on paper. Cullen's work is represented in national and state galleries including the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria; regional and university art collections including Geelong Art Gallery and the Monash University Gallery; and corporate collections including AMP Australia. Dr Shireen Huda 1 Periz, op. cit., p. 12 2 Ralph Hobbs, ÒSex, drugs and guns: Cullen does KellyÓ, in Ken McGregor, Adam Cullen: Iron Mask: The Ned Kelly Series, Black Rat Projects, London, 2010, p. 3 3 Ingrid Periz, Adam Cullen - Scars Last Longer, Craftsman House, Victoria, 2004, p. 40 4 Hobbs, op. cit., p. 4
• Estimate:
  A$20,000 - 30,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.