Sean Scully

American, born 1945

Birth LocationIreland

BiographySean Scully (born 1945) is an Irish-born American-based artist who has twice been named a Turner Prize nominee. One of the most important painters of his generation, his work is held in major museum collections around the world. While known primarily for his large-scale abstract paintings, comprised of vertical and horizontal bands, tessellating blocks and geometrical forms comprised of gradated and shifting colors, Scully also works in a variety of diverse media, including printmaking, sculpture, watercolor and pastel. Born in Dublin, he was raised in London, where he studied at Croydon College of Art between 1965-67 and subsequently at Newcastle University between 1967-71. In 1975 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship and established a studio in New York, where he settled, becoming an American citizen in 1983.

During a 1969 trip to Morocco, Scully became captivated by the patterned and patchworked textiles ubiquitous there, as well as by the qualities of light. This trip led Scully to introduce into his work color relationships and stripes and layered patterns that have since become his signature.

In 1984 Scully was awarded an NEA Artist’s Fellowship and included in MoMA’s International Survey of Recent Paintings and Sculptures. The following year, Scully had his first solo show at an American museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Since, he has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, including Sean Scully: The Art of the Stripe at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College (2008); Follow the Heart: The Art of Sean Scully at Shanghai Himalayas Art Museum, which travelled to Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing (2014-15); Facing East at State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg and Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (2016-17); Vita Duplex at Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Germany (2018); and Sean Scully: Landline at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC (2018-19).

Solo exhibitions of his work are currently on view at the National Gallery of Art, London; Villa Panza, Fondo Ambiente Italiano, Varese; LWL Museum for Art and Culture, Münster; San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice; Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Guadalajara; and the Albertina, Vienna. A major retrospective of his work is planned for 2020 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Scully’s work is collected in major museums and private collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Museum of Modern Art, NY; Art Institute of Chicago; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX; Tate Gallery, London; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada; Museo Nacional Dentro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; and Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China. Scully is represented by the Lisson Gallery in New York, Kerlin Gallery in Dublin, Ingleby Gallery in Scotland, Kewenig Galerie in Berlin, and Blain/Southern Gallery in London.

Person TypeIndividual

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