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Almine Rech

Sean Scully Celtique

Oct 26 — Nov 17, 2019 | Château de Boisgeloup, Gisors, France

Boisgeloup Opens its Doors to Scully, or Scully Opens his Doors to Boisgeloup

‘Ideas and plans that existed in the mind at the start were simply the doorway through which one left the world in which they occur.’ – Mark Rothko

‘What makes him the most important abstract artist of his generation is his capacity to utilize [older] sources as a door to essentially unpredictable ways.’ – David Carrier

‘The door through. I am the door, the way, the entrance, the exit.’ – Sean Scully

‘I am the door.’ – John 10:9

The image of the door or doorway offers an abiding metaphor, or unifying thread that can be traced through much of Sean Scully’s work over the past decades. In his own words, Scully has “always been fascinated with the architecture, the architectural metaphor, of the door, of the passing through.”  Indeed, the door is most evidently visible, even palpable, in the projections, retractions, and clashing of orthogonal and parallel bands, constitutive of his iconic stripe paintings. The doorway often functions (like the window, another metaphor Scully is fond of) as a conduit between light and obscurity, outside and inside – “a way of looking at two things at once, a way of actually inserting another presence into a field.” 

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