The exhibition “Sean Scully. Lines of Emotion” brings together the most important groups of works from the past 30 years, arranged within the architecturally unique setting of a four-winged cloister. Alongside the large-scale “Dorics” and “Wall of Lights”, which represent the absolute pinnacle of his style and remain his unmistakable artistic trademark to this day, the exhibition features the exceptional figurative project Eleuthera (2015–2017), which makes intensive reference to German Expressionism. The 34 large-scale paintings and numerous drawings selected for the presentation are characterised by a perfect balance between the strict geometry of Minimalism and a profound, emotional expressiveness. Within the monastic architecture of the four long cloister wings, the works acquire an entirely new, almost physical presence. They speak of light, memory and in-between spaces, spreading out into the surrounding space.

Inspired by modern and abstract painters as well as by his travels to Morocco and Mexico, Scully began to develop an approach to colour and light many decades ago that increasingly opened itself up to vivid, intense hues and a powerful play of light. The light seems almost to break through from behind the massive stripes, which are layered densely one upon another.

Within the coloured grid of his paintings, the artist organises his thoughts, his feelings and, ultimately, his vision. It is the structure on which he can build and paint, and through which he can express the simple beauty of colour and line in endless variety and depth. At the heart of Scully’s artistic enquiry is the task of understanding colour not merely as a painterly means, but as an almost anthropomorphic, corporeal structure that, in interplay with light, develops its own, almost atmospheric presence. The seemingly abstract blocks and stripes of colour are profound emotional arenas that speak of being human, loss, memory and the power of human relationships.

Works from these series are held in almost all of the world’s major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Tate Modern in London and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.

Born in Dublin in 1945, Scully grows up in south London; 1962–1964 Central School of Art, London; 1965 Croydon College of Art; 1968 Newcastle University; in the 1970s, he moves to the USA, where he turns towards American Minimalism; 2002–2007 Professor of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich; Scully lives and works in New York.