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Adam and Eve were both naked and felt no shame.

Adam and Eve were both naked and felt no shame.
 (2022)

Medium
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Measurements
152.5 × 152.6 cm
Place/s of Execution
Melbourne, Victoria
Inscription
inscribed in fibre-tipped pen on reverse u.c.r.: R. LeWeR
Accession Number
2024.87.7
Department
Contemporary Art
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2024
© Richard Lewer, Hugo Michell Gallery, Jan Murphy Gallery and Suite Gallery
Reproduction requests
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work

Through twelve paintings, Richard Lewer examines the creation story of Adam and Eve, central to Abrahamic religions. Particular to Christianity is how this story of the original human couple also represents the concept of ‘original sin’ and ‘the fall of man’. The story has served as a source of inspiration and commentary by artists throughout the history of Western art.

Lewer’s series sits in association with the Carved retable of the Passion of Christ, also known as the Antwerp altarpiece (c. 1511–20) – created as a didactic edifice for the contemplation by the faithful. The association of this significant historical work with Lewer’s series is indicative of how people have always and continue to look to biblical stories for self-examination and understanding of their contemporary world.

Each painting in Lewer’s series represents a chapter or section of the Adam and Eve myth, where figures and elements, such as the serpent and animals in the Garden of Eden seem to emerge from Lewer’s staining of the unprimed canvas. The stain – also a metaphor for evolution – takes its own shape, depending on the application of paint and its dilution. The paintings include allusions to the current climate crisis and global conflicts among others, built up through further staining and layers of paint.

Related

Series

Adam and Eve

Part of series

This is the account of the heavens and then earth when they were created, when God made the earth and the heavens. No shrub had yet appeared on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the earth. Then God formed a man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breathe of life, and the man became a living being.

Part of series

God planted a garden in the east, Eden. There he put the man he formed and made all kinds of tress grow from the earth, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden was the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Part of series

A river watering the garden flowed from the garden of Eden and from there separated into four waterways.

Part of series

God put the man in the Garden of Eden and asked him to work and care for the land. He named him Adam, commanding him ‘to eat from any tree in the garden, except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil’ for if he was to eat from the tree of knowledge he would certainly die.

Part of series

Out of the ground God formed all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to man and asked him to name each living creature. He gave names to all the livestock, wild animals and birds in the sky.

Part of series

God said ‘It is not good for man to be alone, I will make a helper suitable for him’. God put Adam into a deep sleep and while he slept he took a rib from the man’s chest and closed up the wound with flesh. God made a woman from Adam’s rib. He named her Eve.

Part of series

The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals that God had made. He said to the woman ‘Did God really say that you must not eat from any tree in the garden?’. She replied ‘We may eat fruit from all the trees in the garden except for the tree in the middle of the garden or we will die’. The serpent convinces the woman she will not die and will instead gain wisdom from eating the fruit.

Part of series

Eve takes the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and shares the fruit with Adam.

Part of series

Adam and Eve are walking in the garden one day and hear the sound of God, they hid amongst the trees. God calls ‘where are you?’ Adam answers ‘I heard you in the garden and was afraid because I was naked so I hid.’ God said ‘How did you know you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?’ The man said ‘Eve gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’ God said to Eve ‘What is this you have done?’ Eve said ‘The serpent deceived me and I ate it’.

Part of series

God said to the serpent ‘Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life’. To the woman he said ‘I will make your pains in childbearing severe and with painful labour you will birth children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.’ To Adam he said ‘Because you listened to your wife ate the fruit, cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat food and it will produce thorns and thistles. You will work the fields by the sweat of your brow and you will eat your food until you return to the dust of the ground from where you came.’

Part of series

God makes garments of skin for Adam and Eve and clothed them. God said ‘Man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’ God banished him from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out God placed a cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden with a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.