Taylor Galleries has announced the death artist Michael Cullen. Acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent Irish painters of his generation, he was born in Kilcool, Co. Wicklow in 1946 and studied painting at the Central School of Art and Design, London and Brighton School of Art before returning to Ireland to complete his education at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in the early 1970s. He moved abroad for several years and travel remained an enduring passion: the vibrant palette he employed reveals the influence of time spent in hotter climes, particularly Mexico, North Africa and Spain. His use of bright, clean, saturated colour is emphasised by accents of brilliant white, and his paintings and prints populated by an eclectic crew of cowboys, elephants, circus performers, bullfighters, infantas and camels.
Michael Cullen exhibited in Ireland and further afield and has been represented by Taylor Galleries since the mid-1990s. A member of Aosdána and the Royal Hibernian Academy his work is included in many notable private collections, as well as the public collections of the National Gallery of Ireland; the Hugh Lane Gallery; IMMA; The Arts Council; Trinity College Dublin; The Ulster Museum, Belfast; Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI); AIB; Bank of Ireland and the Berlin Senate.
