Sean Scully: Mirroring

This autumn, the Estorick Collection presents a special intervention by celebrated artist Sean Scully (b. Dublin, 1945), showcasing a body of his work alongside that of Italian master Giorgio Morandi (1890 – 1964). The pairing reflects Scully’s longstanding dialogue with the imagery of Morandi who, though ostensibly a figurative painter, “learned the lessons of abstraction”, as Scully observes.

Sean Scully: Mirroring features 20 works by Scully which date from 1964 to the present day, shown alongside a dozen Morandi etchings and drawings from the Estorick’s permanent collection. Encompassing works on paper, paintings and sculpture, many of these new or rarely seen works trace the arc of Scully’s practice, from early representation to geometric abstraction and eventually back to figuration, a journey that mirrors Morandi’s own evolving trajectory.

Scully’s art is often structured around stripes or layered blocks of colour arranged on horizonal and vertical axes, defined by a careful balance between the monumental and the intimate. At the heart of each rigorously composed work lies a near-infinite number of expressive fluctuations.

Both artists share a deep interest in the configuration of flat, architectonic forms in space, the quiet drama of stacking and layering one shape against another. While grounded in the physical world, their work explores the abstract and expressive potential of geometry.

While Scully gives primary importance to the physiciality of the materials that he employs, his work is guided by the idea of humanity’s betterment. He describes Morandi’s work in these terms: “It will not reach across space to communicate visual power, but makes you reach across space towards it. We do the walking. The painting does the waiting. It lets you – in fact it invites you – to walk past it and ignore it: it is only after you have seen many other paintings that you return to it, with your doubt. Morandi embodies the patience and the diffidence of history.”

Sean Scully: Mirroring is supported by Thaddaeus Ropac.

Admission £9.50 | Concs £7.50

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