Sean Scully is known for his paintings of bold, opposing stripes, grids and checkerboard patterns. His palette is earthy and rich in browns, blacks and ochres. The inspiration for the striped motif he uses was from a trip he took to Morocco in 1970. For him, the striped Moroccan fabrics dyed in deep red and indigo were stunning visually.

His early works from the 1970s were more structured than his later works that explored a new instability between the shapes in the canvases. Scully's painting style has been compared to that of Frank Stella, Jasper Johns and Brice Marden, but Scullys surfaces seem more natural, with visible brushwork and natural hues.

His work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the High Museum and the Mary Boone Gallery in New York. Other public collections include the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Tate Gallery, London, Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Scully was born in Dublin, Ireland, but he was raised in South London. He has been living and working in the United States since 1975 and has been an American citizen since 1983. Scully currently lives in New York, Barcelona and London.


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ARTnews

Sean Scully is an artist known for his abstract compositions of striped and grid structures in various mediums. His inspiration stemmed from traditional fabrics he encountered during a trip to Morocco in 1969, which left a lasting impression on him. Throughout his career, Scully continued to draw inspiration from striped structures in everyday life and his travels, infusing his works with vibrant colors and unique arrangements of stripes, bars, and rectangles. Each composition bears his distinctive painterly signature, conveying individual feelings and associations.