Sean Scully is one of the leading abstract painters working today. His work is represented in most major international museums and has been the subject of an extraordinary number of retrospectives around the world, in Europe, the Americas and Australia. In 1975 he settled in New York and now divides his time between New York, Barcelona and Munich.

In the early 1980s, Scully re-introduced colour, space and texture through the application of multiple layers of paint and thereby added an expressive element to his work. He introduced relief elements in his paintings, broadening the expressive range of his work with a more emphatic, physical quality: 'I liked the idea of looking at a painting that you could not look at just from the front but had to move around.' At the same time stripes widen and become more pulsating, colour intensifies and black is often used to evoke feelings from solemn to sinister.

By the mid 1980s Scully had gained international recognition and many major museums began to acquire his paintings. This exhibition focuses on Scully's work from the 1980s, together with works on paper from the artist's own collection. This period has not been reflected in recent gallery exhibitions but holds a very special place in the development of his art.

Organised by Leeds Art Gallery, accompanied by a special exhibition publication.

 

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