Landline Grey

The stripe has been central to Scully’s work over the course of his career. Described by the artist as `a signifier for modernism', the motif has evolved over the course of his career, from thin, grid-like strips, owing a debt to Minimalism, to broad bands of textured colour which have a powerful, physical presence. These floating, often horizontal, planes of colour are reminiscent of Mark Rothko's paintings which were a formative influence on the artist. Like Rothko, Scully's subtle combinations create an emotional charge which resonates with the viewer. As the artist has observed, `The power of a painting has to come from the inside out, not the outside in. It's not just an image; it's an image with a body, and that body has to contain its spirit'. (Sean Scully quoted in Mark Glazebrook, ‘Sean Scully: Summarizing Living and Painting’, in Sean Scully: Paintings, exhibition catalogue, Manchester, 1997, p. 122).

The inspiration for the Landline series, to which this lot belongs, came from the landscape, `I was always looking at the horizon line – at the way the blocks of the world hug…and brush up against each other, their weight, their air, their colour, and the soft uncertain space between them’ (Sean Scully, Kinds of Red, Timothy Taylor Gallery exhibition press release, London, 2014).


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