Sean Scully has been to China many times, so when he appears in front of everyone in a plaid shirt and jeans, there is no rustiness. "It's not like in Japan, it's formal. He said. The artist, who is nearly 80 years old, is still full of energy, always describing his life and work with warm, witty metaphors and anecdotes, like a stand-up comedian who pokes at his informality, his emphasis on family, his contact with American politics, his fanatical spirituality and even his best at abstract painting.
The first time I went to New York, I invited my aunt to come and see my exhibition. She was a very rough looking woman who worked in a bank, like the kind of person who smoked 50 cigarettes a day. In the 70s (of the 20th century), my paintings were very Zen, that is, a horizontal straight line, separated into two colors. When she came to the scene, she looked around and asked, 'Where is the painting?' I pointed to the wall and said, 'Oh, that's a painting.' Sean Scully said.
Sean Sculley's aunt does represent a large part of the audience's perception of abstract painting, and many people don't know what the difference is between these mere blocks of color, lines, and unsolved mysteries. As one of the most important contemporary painters, Sean Scully's greatest achievement is to bring back to life abstract paintings that once reached a dead end. In the 70s of the 20th century, his paintings attempted to blend American minimalism and op art, culminating in grids, stripes, and blocks of color. By 1980, the artist had turned to focus on what he thought painting should do: focus on humanity.
If Rothko pierced the soul, then Sean Scully was the one who embraced the soul. His work blends the coldness of minimalism and the rigidity of the edge with the warmth of human error, and as his dear friend and lead singer of U2 Bono once described Sean Scully as a "bricklayer of the soul".
So, Shaun Scully is not a megalomaniac who interprets his paintings with confidence, he always wants to "return" abstract painting to the audience. Perhaps it is this concept that Obama and Hillary Clinton's teams will ask him to draw propaganda materials during their election campaign in the United States. In 2020, he uncharacteristically painted black, ominous colors that shattered the otherwise mesmerizing stripe paintings, and the artist described his work as "nihilistic and negative". He painted these in direct response to the pandemic and the uncertain future of humanity at the time.
Recently, the art world has been surprised by Sean Scully's shift to figurative creation. "I used to like to paint portraits, but then I switched to abstract painting. "Now I'm back to figurative paintings. I have a children's storybook with Jack – a wolf that I created for my son and I drew all the illustrations in this storybook. I made up a figurative wolf, and it was funny. He recently lived in London and went to school with his children, and he thinks London is the best place to go to school. Before becoming the father of the "chicken baby", Sean Scully emigrated twice: once from Ireland to London, England in 1949, and once to New York in 1975. He came from a destitute background, "We used to eat fried bread three times a day." In Dublin, the family lived with a gypsy for a while; When moving to London, they were still starving. "My mother was a singer and she would win all the talent competitions. And Sean Sculley's grandmother worked 18 hours a day, raised seven children, and "never complained."
One or two interesting people in my life turned me from a gangster to a poet. But I think the poet has always been in my heart. "I used to go to church with my grandma, you know, Catholicism is very visual, very emotional, so it's fun." It's a makeshift Joan of Arc church, which is actually just a shack with a tin roof. It was amazing when it rained and I loved it! It gives me a lot of drama. Before entering the art world, Sean Scully worked as a brick cleaner on a construction site, a Christmas postman, a plasterer, and a factory stacking cardboard boxes. Perhaps, those stacked and brick-like forms provide the basis for his unique visual language.
Lisson Gallery Beijing is presenting Sean Sculley's solo exhibition "The Wall of Land Light", which presents his most recent work. The works trace the dry stone and wood walls common in rural Ireland and Scotland, with brightly coloured brushstrokes at the joints of the blocks representing the light through the gaps in the stone walls. The layering and blending of oil paints on the aluminium panels presents bands of color that resemble sedimentary rock formations or horizons, alluding to the intersection between the earth and the sky, between nature and architecture. It seems that those worries about the future have disappeared, and the painter is now tracing his roots and pursuing something more timeless.
Artist Sean Sculley. (Photo courtesy of Lisson Gallery).
New Weekly:Stripes have been a fundamental element of your work throughout your career, and your obsession with this shape stems from?
Sean Sculley:My original idea came from Morocco, North Africa. However, the other day I saw a jacket in a painting in a museum in Guangzhou, which also used such large stripes. In general, stripes are a very iconic part of different cultures. Stripes have strong shape properties, you can give them a direction, you can make them collide with each other, you can change them from near to far. Although I didn't realize that they are often used as Islamic propaganda language, I wasn't interested in them because it wasn't my world, but the abstract world was interesting to me.
Secondly, I believe that the stripe, a pattern with a basic shape, realizes abstract communication between people, and this communication is a way to achieve unified cognition. Of course, the criticism of this is that everyone has the right to have their own understanding, and this leads to the exchange and communication between people. I chose the other path, which is the same as suprematism, which is the desire to create a global language. So, it's important for me to be able to show my work everywhere.
New Weekly:But in this exhibition, almost all the shapes are square. Why Square?
Sean Sculley:I've been working on these squares lately because I think they're interesting. It's hard to measure their size and it's hard to name them. I stacked them as if they were off the surface of the earth, and looking at them was like seeing the horizon at different times of the day, and they were all placed in one painting. They have no direction, and are therefore infinite, as I am in now. They have to be vertical, so instead of thinking of the horizon as a horizontal line, I stack it on top of each other. It looks like a ladder and symbolizes an ascent.
New Weekly:Among the works on display in the exhibition are many colored ghosts that resemble sedimentary rock layers or strata.
Sean Sculley:German Expressionism. In particular, the Bridge Society (one of the schools of German Expressionism). When I saw them, I got a little berserk because they were so powerful, so I decided to put them together. And after a certain amount of training, I have the ability to concretize these abstract narratives.
New Weekly:What about color? What kind of color selection methods do you use in your work? Or do you think color is an important part of your expression?
Sean Sculley:The color must have a relationship with the body of the material. In my opinion, color cannot be separated from the material, as in the works of Mondrian and Rothko, whose colors gradually become distangible. In my work, I pay more attention to the properties of the material itself. The unity of spirit and subject is very important, because this quality is also highly consistent with our human nature. These theoretically based paintings abandon this relationship, and my work, on the contrary, is oriented towards the future of painting, with themes that focus more on activities about human subjectivity.
I have a high sense of harmony and unity in my heart. I think it's a unity of things, rather than looking at it with an analytical eye. I strongly agree with this detached perspective, including the color subjects themselves. If I draw blue, it's blue, and it's not only blue in color on the outside, but it's blue in itself.
Lisson Gallery Beijing, Sean Sculley's solo exhibition "The Wall of Land". (Photo courtesy of Lisson Gallery).
New Weekly:In one of your interviews, you mentioned that your paintings have always had a very simple structure, like blues. Why Blues?
Sean Sculley:My mom was a singer, a vaudeville comedian to be exact, performing magic tricks and singing. Important in the culture of the Irish. The Irish and the British look similar, but they are not the same, the Irish are more like madmen. They have a rhythm. They usually come from plantations. When black slaves and Irish worked together, they would tap dance. I like this syncretism. In short, the beauty of the blues lies in this foundation, not in rock 'n' roll. I have a long list of times when I can "draw" when I go to draw a noise that I like about those interactions.
New Weekly:What inspires you in general? For example, the blues, for their simplicity, impress you, but what other qualities inspire you?
Sean Sculley:Natural and ancient architecture. Ancient buildings are very interesting to me because I like things that have been slightly damaged over time. Germany, for example, has almost no traces of history, as almost all the buildings are known.
New Weekly:Is it the post-war buildings and ruins?
Sean Sculley:I use ancient things as a source of inspiration, like those in Mexico. I have 7000 ashtrays. In conclusion, I often draw inspiration from nature or ancient walls. I love the old walls, I love the old wooden structures, I love things that have stories to tell. It's like an old door that has been used by millions of people, and their souls pass through it. It was very touching to me. Every time I touch such an object, I am deeply moved.
New Weekly:Does this concentration of emotions have anything to do with your recent turn to figurative creation?
Sean Sculley:Figurative art always has an advantage in terms of recognition, while abstraction always has only one dimension of recognition. In the beginning, it has a drawback, but in the long run, this can turn into an advantage. Abstraction always has an argument about what something is, and derives an awareness of what something is. I like to make abstractions readable, provided that I don't lose them. Abstraction is always in uncharted territory, and you have to struggle a little bit – I like that.
New Weekly:You grew up in the South End and now you're back in London, why is it appealing to you?
Sean Sculley:I met a white Muslim who went to the restroom in an Italian restaurant with me, and he gave me a big hug; Every time I see him with an Indian waitress, the waitress will also talk to me all the time; There will also be black waitresses in an Italian restaurant. That's what I love about London, although it's a bit crazy.
New Weekly:You love the diversity of London.
Sean Sculley:I think that's the only way out. That's why I want my art to be everywhere, because I think art is the best thing we can create. If you look back in history, it's shit. What is History? History is war, this is history. And what's against that? Art.
New Weekly:How do different city lives affect your practice? Which cities have inspired you the most?
Sean Sculley:Running around is about finding commonalities. As I always say, I'm a syncretist. I want everything to come together. What is the definition of creativity for me? It is an impurity in purity. I would say growing up in London is incredible because it's an incredible place to grow up. New York obviously had a big impact on me as well because of its rigor, its academic rigor. But both London and New York lack souls, which is why I always leave. I went to Germany, which was philosophically interesting to me. I'm not an intellectual, people think I am, I just read a little bit of philosophy, but not that much. But I don't think that reading a lot means being intellectually superior.
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