Sean Scully Figure / Abstract

Published in conjunction with the major touring exhibition Figure / Abstract, this publication traces Scully's development as an artist, showing rare early works and his figurative beginnings.

Sean Scully (* 1945 in Dublin) is considered one of the most significant abstract painters of our time. For decades he has produced a wealth of variations on his core theme of lines and stripes, creating works with a fascinating range of tone and expression from the romantic to the melancholic. Early on in his ca­reer Scully did figural work, to which he still feels in­debted; “To this day my paintings retain a sense of the body, and the feeling of a physical relationship with the world.” He considers German Expressionism one of his sources of inspiration and specifically cites the influence of artists André Derain, Henri Matisse, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The stroke of the brush is a visible component of his paint­erly abstractions. The edges of his fields of color are delineated by hand, which lends his compositions a haptic quality. Presenting surprising new perspec­tives on the artist’s work, this publication is the first study on the interplay between figuration and ab­straction in Scully’s oeuvre.

Exhibitions: Ludwig Museum im Deutschherrenhaus Koblenz 31.8.–16.11.2014 | Kunsthalle Rostock 1.3–26.4.2015 | Crawford Art Gallery, Cork 26.6–12.9.2015

Hardcover: 200 pages, 200 illustrations

Publisher: Hatje Cantz Verlag (2014), 1st edition

Languages: English, German

Authors: Marc O'Sullivan, Beate Reifenscheid, Sean Scully

Design: Hannes Aechter

Printing: Dza Druckeri zu Altenburg GMBH, Altenburg

Dimensions: 245 x 307 mm

ISBN: 978-3-7757-3900-9