Having exhibited Stephen Cullen’s work for the past seven years, it is a pleasure for Cherrylane to host this, his 14th solo show. Popularity in this artist has steadily grown over the past 25 years and his dedicated fans have encouragingly followed the interesting and steady progression of his art.
As the title of this exhibition ‘Painting at the edge’ suggests the work is not fully abstract. It is on the border of abstraction, the images have been broken down to the bare essentials yet they very often depict an obviously recognisable scene or collection of objects, which the artist has intensely studied over his career. They are expressive paintings; the bright, bold, cleverly balanced colours attack the eye and demand an immediate response. The work is absolutely bursting with energy, happiness and excitement, with emotion oozing from the bright and lustrous canvases. It is difficult to directly relate these paintings by Stephen Cullen to any one school. There is a relation or elements to the German, French and American expressionists such as Der Blaue Reiter Group, Miro, Matisse, De Kooning or abstract expressionists such as Karel Appel or William Scott.
From the beginning there has been great honesty in Stephens painting. The sketch pencil marks and much of the bare white primed canvas were often left visible. As the painting technique developed the blank canvas spaces were replaced with pure white pigment thus breaking a rule of thumb in painting; white paint is almost always tinted. This gave the paintings a strong sense of life, it also gave the artist the opportunity to exhibit his obvious love and knowledge of colour and provided a strong contrast to the rest of his palette, thus creating bold, fresh and lively crowded street and harbour scenes.
There is a calculated simplicity to the work, this simplicity does not derive from any form of bravery or complacency, it is through pure confidence and experience as an artist. The passion and familiarity Stephen has for both the materials and subjects he uses is incomparable. A vivid love of paint and how it sticks and moves on the canvas, the recent introduction of the instigative scrapings and markings executed in one action show the purity of expression in the work, the thick impasto pigment gives body and shows a pure painterly soul while the compositions are most defiantly from the mind of a philosophical artist.
The Great Matisse once said “we work toward serenity through simplification of ideas and of form. The ensemble is our own ideal. Details lessen the purity of the lines and harm the emotional intensity; we reject them”
He has exhibited with many well-known galleries, including the Solomon Gallery and the Hallward Gallery in Dublin, and the Dillon Gallery and Borderline Arts in London.
In the last 25 years he has had 14 successful one-man shows, including one that travelled to France and Luxembourg.
Stephen regularly exhibits with the RHA and Eigse exhibitions. Group shows include: Invited Artist to Eigse ’92 – Carlow; “Art for Film” – Irish Life Centre, Dublin “New Irish Art” – Dillon Gallery, London
