Artist Adam Cullen dies

Archibald prize winner, for his portrait of David Wenham in 2000. Not killed directly by an overdose, as far as we know, but it seems he had multiple organ failure over the last year or so. Niceties like 'he battled his demons' are trotted out, along with more straightforward statements like 'Adam had various addictions'.

There is a link between art and drug usage, that is obvious. There is a belief sometimes that usage increases productivity, which it does for some, and allows one to go to places not normally accessible. Brett Whitely. Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The unfortunate reality that in a society where certain substances are economically loaded, productivity in art must eventually be traded or sacrificed in order to generate funds to support a habit. In the last year Adam Cullen could only work an hour or two a day, a strict regimen of pills all clockworking to generate a brief window of minimum functionality that allowed him to paint a little each day,

His last exhibition was a local gallery, an exhibit of animals. 'Enfant Terrible' was bandied about in the printed and digital press, and even now some ten year old Aussie artist is limbering up to play this same role again, promising young artist, uses drugs to differentiate hisself and also experience the unreachable, then a sideways move to slipping out of public focus until earlu death.