SEAN SCULLY, R.A. (B. 1945) - photo 1
SEAN SCULLY, R.A. (B. 1945) - photo 2
SEAN SCULLY, R.A. (B. 1945) - photo 3

SEAN SCULLY, R.A. (B. 1945)

Lot 130
20.10.2022 13:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 107 100
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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Archive
ID 831303
Lot 130 | SEAN SCULLY, R.A. (B. 1945)
Estimate value
£ 70 000 – 100 000
SEAN SCULLY, R.A. (B. 1945)

5.16.89

signed and dated 'Sean Scully 5.16.89' (lower right)

pastel and coloured chalk on paper

36 x 30 1/2 in. (91.4 x 77.5 cm.)

Executed in 1989.





Provenance

with Mayor Rowan Gallery, London.

with Timothy Taylor Gallery, Chicago, where purchased by the present owner in the late 1990s.



Exhibited

London, Grob Gallery, Sean Scully, Pastel Drawings, December 1989 - January 1990, no. 26.



Special notice


Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.



Post lot text

‘Pastel is like putting makeup on. There is a dust on the paper, which I rub in. I push it right into the paper with a piece of cloth or paper. Once it’s embedded into the surface, I fix it. And then I work it up, adding a layer, fixing it, adding another layer, fixing it again, and so on until the pastel starts to stand up a little from the paper. At a certain point, if you keep pushing, you start taking it off. So you have to give in’ (S. Scully, quoted in M. Poirier, Sean Scully, New York, 1990 p. 143).

In a wonderful play of balance and colour, 5.16.89 reflects the substantial influence that Abstract Expressionism had on Scully’s practice. Taking inspiration from the artist Mark Rothko’s minimalistic yet boldly poignant canvases, Scully removed the figurative subjects found in his early work to instead explore how the colour combinations can represent humanity and emotion in the place of a more literal subject. It was in his visits to North Africa and Mexico in the 1960s and 1980s, where Scully witnessed the changing light and shadow throughout the day across the ancient Mayan stacked stones which instigated his Wall of Light series, where architectural bricks of colour are grouped together in varying horizontal and vertical formations.

5.16.89 displays soft red-pink pastel stripes, layered against heavy panels of black. Together, the colours simultaneously harmonise and compete with one another, pushing and pulling the viewer constantly around the pattern. The directions, represented by horizontal and vertical lines and the tensions they create, are at the heart of Scully’s production. This new geometrical approach, which moves away from the idea of purity and appropriates errors, reflects the troublesome relationship between the individual and the collective and opens up a new field of reflection, previously unknown to abstract painting.
Artist:Sean Scully (1945)
Applied technique:Chalk, Charcoal
Medium:Wood, Stone
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
20.10.2022 – 20.10.2022
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
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