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Artist: Sean Scully (b.1945) Title: Untitled No.9 (1982) Signature: signed, titled and dated 1982 lower right Medium: oil, oilstick and acrylic on paper Size: 66½ x 102½cm (26.2 x 40.4in) Framed Size: 92 x 128cm (36.2 x 50.4in) Provenance: William Beadleston Gallery, New York (label verso); Sotheby's, New York, 15th November 2006 lot 459; Private Collection a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} In a composition of interlocking rectangles, the artist sets up tensions between two elemental striped sections. A band of vertical stripes in the lower left seems to intrude into the equilibrium of the wave-like, rhythmic arrangement of horizontal stripes in the larger portion. Scully uses colour, ... Read more Sean Scully Lot 23 - 'Untitled No.9 (1982)' Estimate: €60,000 - €90,000 In a composition of interlocking rectangles, the artist sets up tensions between two elemental striped sections. A band of vertical stripes in the lower left seems to intrude into the equilibrium of the wave-like, rhythmic arrangement of horizontal stripes in the larger portion. Scully uses colour, texture and the properties of different media to heighten the effect. The larger, horizontal bands are rendered in spare strokes of yellow oil stick on an austere, grey acrylic ground. The grouping of vertical bands of grey and pink, in oil paint, are much more variegated and complex in their handling, offering richer textural and tonal effects. Now one of the foremost contemporary artists in the world, Sean Scully attaches great importance to his Irish roots. Born in Dublin, he then grew up in London before moving to New York in the mid-1970s, by which point he had moved from figuration to abstraction in his painting and was making works based on bands of coloured stripes. It took him to the end of the decade to seriously establish himself in New York, but he has not looked back since, becoming one of the best-known and widely exhibited and collected artists in the world. Stripes, and blocks of colour, remain the basic elements of his pictorial vocabulary, though he has also reintroduced figuration in recent years. In his painting, he has taken some core aspects of minimalist abstraction and humanized them, prioritizing the nuance and fallibility of the human touch over pure geometry, and the role of emotion over pure rationality. This has opened up an otherwise relatively austere mode of expression, allowing great metaphoric reach without being tied to any specific representational image, and giving the work a timeless quality. Aidan Dunne, September 2021