Lot 88
SEAN SCULLY (IRISH B.1945) §
WALL OF LIGHT - DEEP RED
Auction: 16 March 2016 at 11:00 GMT
Description
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2.16.05, watercolour
Dimensions
76cm x 56cm (30in x 22in)
Footnote
Exhibited: The Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
Note: One of Ireland's best known and most influential artists, throughout the course of his career the Dublin-born Scully has achieved phenomenal success and international recognition. His work can be found in world-class collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Guggenheim, New York, The Smithsonian, Washington D.C., and Tate Modern, London to name but a few. Though he took up residence in New York in the early 1970s, his appeal has not diminished in Ireland and the British Isles and over the years Scully has seen himself nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize on two separate occasions, 1989 and 1993.
Best described as a Modernist painter, Scully's relationship with the U.S.A. can assist our reading of his work, connected as it is to the legacy of Abstract Expressionism. His trademark stripes, squares and rectangles meet and intercept; their relationship to one another conveying a sense of movement. The tonal harmonising and interplay of colour and form engages our emotions, their meditative quality evocative of the work of the great Mark Rothko. Subtle and reflective, Scully's works speak to their viewers with a quiet, nuanced power. While he layers his oils densely, his watercolours, like the example we are pleased to offer here for sale, have a more elusive, ephemeral quality. The colours interact; gently drifting forward and simultaneously recessing, quietly intense and coolly calm. Scully's work is absorbing and symphonic in its simplicity.
