SEAN SCULLY 1970
Sean Scully’s exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle is running until 28th May 2018. It is composed of multiple pieces of Scully’s work involving stripes, grids and spaces from his early career in the 1970s. Sean Scully is a two-time turner prize winner and Post-Minimalist Abstraction artist who studied at Newcastle University in 1968 where he had a breakthrough in his art career. Taking his inspiration from the city of Newcastle, many of his paintings bare resemblance to the famed bridges and cityscape. His paintings are often very colour pieces, with a combination of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. Most of the exhibition pieces were on square and rectangular canvases but some were on shaped canvases such as Cream Red Cream 1973 which is on a chevron canvas. I was particularly fond of this piece as well as Diagonal Light 1972, as the layer of black stripes amongst the layers of coloured stripes, created dimension and depth to the painting. Scully uses the familiar minimalist trait of using grids within his work and by focusing on the painting long enough you could pick out each grid of colour from eac
h other. There were also multiple drawings in the exhibition, which very unlike their accompanying pieces, were messy, free and full of shapes. I liked this juxtaposition as the contrast held a similar yet completely different vibe and each piece, although different, work together well and created a strong, cohesive exhibition overall.
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