Irish-born, New York–based artist Sean Scully (born 1945) is famed internationally for his luscious abstractions. Scully creates large-format paintings with an intense application of color and rough brushstrokes. Checkered or striped patterns emerge, evoking the aesthetic of geometric minimalism.
Sean Scully: Eleuthera
reveals a surprising and more private side of the artist's work. The
Eleuthera
series, from the years 2016–17, consists of 25 large-format oil paintings depicting Oisín, the artist’s seven-year-old son, playing on the beach of Eleuthera, an island in the Bahamas. The emergence of figuration in the artist's work does not, however, exclude the bright abstract bands of color he is known for: instead, Scully's colors warp to compose the figure of his son, as well as the landscape around him.