Sean Scully

David McKee Gallery, New York
Private Collection
David McKee Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2002

This work is in very good condition overall. Please refer to the following condition report prepared by Simon Parkes Art Conservation.
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Painted in 1986, Sean Scully's Wait is an exceptional example of the artist's abstract compositions that allude to architectural elements including portals, windows and walls. Throughout the artist's career, his pictorial surfaces strike a balance between hard-edge geometric structure and the experience of paint application. Wait was painstakingly composed of layers of pigment unevenly applied revealing each subsequent hue. The horizontal bands of alternating black and white in the upper portion of the composition are counter-balanced by the solid square mass of brown in the bottom center quadrant. Scully reveals underpainted tones of blue and rose, creating a glow that propels each color forward from each applied layer. As opposed to the removal of hand in abstract compositions by artists such as Ellsworth Kelley and Frank Stella, Scully's swatches of pigmentation demonstrate the painter's commitment to revealing the nuances with each subsequent horizontal swatch of paint. 

The Irish-born, English-educated artist has been working in American since the mid-1970s. Since the artist studied in the United Kingdom, he is well versed in classical European painting as well as American Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism. Throughout his career, Scully has attempted to convey his concern for the human condition through what he calls the 'competitive' use of juxtaposing, seemingly simple forms and colors. According to the artist, "Black represents the end of the line. When you look at black, you are looking at death. The paintings in which I use that colour are mostly about the struggle between life and death" (Sean Scully, New York, 1990, p. 158). 

It is the artist's intention for one to perceive each compositional element working together in balance. Through this 'competitive' employment of balanced shapes and forms, Scully is articulating his interest in existential symbolism. According to Donald Kuspit, "If there is such a thing as an 'advance' in transcendental abstraction...then Scully's paintings, simultaneously gestural and geometrical, are that advance. They breathe new spiritual life and subtlety into transcendental abstraction, showing that it not only remains possible and viable, but that it is necessary in these spiritually dark art times." (Sean Scully: A Retrospective, London, 2007)