Ookbar

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Ookbar

Artist Sean Scully (American, born 1945)

Date1993-1994

DimensionsH: 96 in. (243.8 cm); W: 144 1/2 in. (289.6 cm).

MediumOil on linen

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey, Dr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Gosman, Felix Wildenstein, and Paul Reinhardt, in memory of his father, Henry Reinhardt, by exchange

Object number

2012.101A-C

Not on View

DescriptionLarge scale, hand painted canvas. The orange-yellow background is divided into twelve equal, vertical bars by eleven sturdy black pinstripes. A horizontally black-and-gray striped rectangle has been “inserted” atop the orange-and-black field. This large-scale canvas is clearly handpainted, its surface visibly brushy, but it is also systematically composed. The orange-yellow background is divided into twelve equal, vertical bars by eleven sturdy black pinstripes. A horizontally black-and-gray striped rectangle has been “inserted” atop the orange-and-black field just right of center, spanning precisely the width of two of the orange bars and extending downward approximately two-thirds of the canvas’s height.This large-scale canvas is clearly handpainted, its surface visibly brushy, but it is also systematically composed. The orange-yellow background is divided into twelve equal, vertical bars by eleven sturdy black pinstripes. A horizontally black-and-gray striped rectangle has been “inserted” atop the orange-and-black field just right of center, spanning precisely the width of two of the orange bars and extending downward approximately two-thirds of the canvas’s height.

Label TextSean Scully began exploring the stripe in his work after a 1969 trip to Morocco, where he was captivated by patterned and patchwork textiles that seemed to support his belief that abstraction was a universal language. Ookbar can be described somewhat in narrative terms. Scully had been reading the 1940 short story “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” by Argentine author Jorje Louis Borges (1899–1986) about a place that may or may not exist—no one can quite remember where it is, or how to spell its name. Scully made two paintings around this idea of an uncertain place, the Museum’s painting Ookbar and one called Ukbar (now in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid)—both titles variations of the spellings suggested for the missing land. Scully has referred to the narrow vertical rectangle of gray and black horizontal stripes that pushes in atop the background of black-striped yellow as an “uninvited guest,” and as a “visitation.” He further explains, “something is entering the painting and breaking the field from the top edge; breaking the harmony of the painting.”Published ReferencesEccher, Danilo; Hegyi, Lorand; Borra, Maria Llusia; Kuspit, Donald, Sean Scully: A Retrospective, London, Thames & Hudson, 2007, repr. (col.) p. 60.

Sean Scully, Edinburgh, Ingleby Gallery, 2005, p. 20, repr. (col.) p. 21.

Exhibition HistoryBarcelona, Miro Foundation; Sainte-Etienne, Musée d’Art Modern; Rome, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Sean Scully: A Retrospective, 2007–2008

Art Basel, 2010, at the booth for Galerie Lelong.