Constantinople or the Sensual Concealed | The imagery of Sean Scully
February 19 – May 3, 2009
MKM Museum Küppersmühle for Modern Art
Sean Scully (*1945), the internationally acclaimed Irish painter, maintaining studios in New York, Barcelona and on the outskirts of Munich, is staging a comprehensive retrospective of his work from 19 February to 3 May 2009 in the MKM Museum Küppersmühle.
“Constantinople or Sensuality Concealed“ presents some 60 works and groups of works, arranged thematically in separate rooms, which afford a comprehensive insight into the artist’s creative output.
In his work, Scully combines European and American pictorial traditions. His abstract paintings are possessed of an austere pictorial structure, divided up into grids by contrasting coloured stripes, bars and fields, which penetrate or overlap each other. At the same time, the haptic quality of his paintings captivates the viewer: a concealed sensuality evokes a rich world of imagery, which whilst remaining elusive, is always present and arouses curiosity. In this way, Scully succeeds in encapsulating emotions, atmospheres, associations and ‘images’ within his abstract compositions. Titles such as “Darkness and Heat“, “Happy Days“, “Königin der Nacht“ or “Mirror Silver“ underscore the narrative moment. “It is this intimation of the real world, of the objects, of the countless stories lying beyond, beneath and between the geometrical form of the rectangle – which characterise the enormous power of the paintings of Sean Scully”. Of this Susanne Kleine, the curator of the exhibition, is convinced.
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