Charlie Cullen
The romantic dream for many artists is to live and work in the South of France. Something to do with the pure light perhaps. A hundred years ago it took a great deal of courage to take up ones roots and just go. The list of artists who did this is prestigious. Van Gogh, Soutine, Gauguin, Picasso and Cezanne to name a few, but today with cheap and convenient air travel an artist can have the best of both worlds.
Charlie Cullen has this almost schizophrenic life style, having bases in Dublin and here in the Herault, in the village of Adissan, which is situated between Clermont Herault and Pezanas.
Charlie was born in Longford in Southern Ireland in 1939.
He studied at Ireland’s National College of Art and Design from 1957 to 1960 and after spending a year in Francos’ Spain he returned to Ireland. He then set about seeking a living as full time artist, a difficult if not impossible task. As with many artists he found the way to survive was to teach, which is what he did, ending up as the head of painting at the College of Art in Dublin. He retired from this post a few years ago and is now working at his art full time with studios in both Dublin and Adissan.
Charlie Cullen is perhaps one of the finest draughtsmen of his generation, excelling superbly in his images and visual dialogues inspired by that somewhat obscure masterpiece ’Ulysses’ by James Joyce.
His etchings based in Nighttown, the red light area of Dublin, bring a visual accessibility to Joyces’ complex and complicated magnum opus. This book appears to have obsessed Cullen during his artistic life, a subject he has revisited many times as he has attempted to interpret and comprehend arguably the most important and influential figure and work in Irish literature.
The power of Cullen’s images is evident hinting at influences from the expressionist school which includes painters such as Otto Dix, Beckman and George Groscz yet Cullen’s work is original and recognisable.
In spite of creating in the style and having a subject matter which could be termed as heavy Charlie Cullen is a very approachable, accessible and an articulate human being. A man who can verbalise his art if necessary and has a passionate interest in many forms of creativity including literature and film.
His idealism and socialism is very much on the surface which is an endearing quality of the man. He never plays the artist, he is the artist.
Art undoubtedly is his life and his knowledge of the subject is immense. Charlie Cullen is a man without pretension which is how the true artist should be.
His sincerity & commitment is not hidden and he never misses his round of drinks.
'Dylan Joyce'