Between the Lines Critical Writings on Sean Scully

Sean Scully is recognized as one of the most important abstract artists of our age. For half a century, he has explored with unwavering determination and vision the possibilities of the stripe, band, and block as abstract forms. In doing so, he reconciled the aesthetic of pure Minimalism with a more human and expressive approach that reinvented abstraction as physical, sensual, and endowed with powerful emotion.

From his earliest days, Scully attracted the attention and interest of writers and thinkers who were drawn to his distinctive work. This beautiful book collates the writings of fifty critical luminaries from various disciplines who have written about his art and the singular course that he followed in the first three decades of his career. Reflecting the endless variety of his compositions, each contributor identifies novel and different aspects in the work as it developed in unexpected and intriguing ways. On publication, these texts became catalysts for the artist himself, woven into his evolution and influencing his development either as lines of enquiry to explore or as ideas to kick against. Lavishly illustrated with all of Scully’s key works from the late 1960s to 1999, and with dozens of installation views, behind-the-scenes studio shots, and portraits of the artist, many seen here for the first time, this collection provides a concise and accessible account of the early career of an artist as he set out to finally reconcile emotion and intellect in abstract painting.