Skip to main content Skip to main menu
Senate House Library presents... SHL Special Collections
Senate House Library

Main menu

  • Home
  • Main gallery
  • Artists
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Visit

You are here

  • Home
  • Artists
  • Sean Scully

Sean Scully

Born in Ireland in 1945, Scully’s family move to England when he was four.  In 1960 he was apprenticed in a printing shop in London, and joined a graphic design studio.  His first visit to America was made in the early Seventies as John Knox Fellow with a residency at Harvard University.  In 1975 Scully was awarded a Harkness Fellowship and established a studio in New York and, in 1983, he became an American Citizen and received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

26.7.74 No. 1/4

This painting represents a transitional phase between Scully's early works - exuberant, with overlapping stripes - and the sombre works of the 1977-79 phase. It employs widely spaced single overlapping bands tied to the ground by bleeding around taped edges. 

Thumbnail for 26.7.74 No. 1/4 (1974) 26.7.74 No. 1/4 (1974)

Downloads

  • Sean Scully biography.pdf (149.13 KB)

Need help?

  • Contact us

Sean Scully RA (1945 - )

Nationality

British

Education

1962-65: evening classes at Central School of Art

1965-68: Croydon College of Art

1967-71: University of Newcastle upon Tyne

1968-72: Newcastle University

1972-73: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
 

Taught

1967-71: teaching assistant, University of Newcastle upon Tyne and at Sunderland College of Art

1973-75: Chelsea School of Art and Design and Goldsmith’s College of Art and Design

1978-82: Princeton University, New Jersey

Shortlisted for Turner Prize 1989 and 1993

2002-07: Professor of painting, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich
 

Background

Born in Ireland in 1945, Scully’s family move to England when he was four.  In 1960 he was apprenticed in a printing shop in London, and joined a graphic design studio.  His first visit to America was made in the early Seventies as John Knox Fellow with a residency at Harvard University.  In 1975 Scully was awarded a Harkness Fellowship and established a studio in New York and, in 1983, he became an American Citizen and received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
 

The artist

Scully’s early paintings were identified with the vigorous debates of the early 1970s about art and language.  From the early 1980s Scully's increasing awareness of the arid effect of formal abstraction led to a simplification of means with greater breadth of handling and pictorial construction.  His paintings superimposed irregular panels of vertical stripes within broad bands of contrasting hues.  His progress was distinguished by a remarkable and sometimes unfashionable commitment to the fundamental concerns of abstract art.  Elected RA December 2012.

  • Home
  • Main gallery
  • Artists
  • Resources
    • About the CNAA
    • Stroud Cornock
    • The CNAA Collection: History and context
    • What is the CNAA?
    • Celebrating the achievements of the Art schools: A new resource
      • Art collections
      • Art education in the UK
      • Growth and diversity
      • A National Collection
      • Curriculum
      • Teaching and learning
      • Technology
      • Gender
      • Springboard
      • Philosophy, Research and Controversy
    • Additional resources
  • Blog
  • Visit
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2018 Senate House Library, University of London

Microsite template designed & built by Mickey and Mallory, and configured by Senate House Library. Click here for a full list of acknowledgements.

  • Accessibility
  • Cookies & privacy
  • Site map

Address

Senate House Library
University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HU

Map and travel information

Operating hours

(Entry to the Library ceases 15 minutes before the times below.)

MAIN LIBRARY
Monday – Thursday: 09:00 – 20:45
Friday: 09:00 – 18:15
Saturday: 09:45 – 17:15
Sunday: Closed

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Monday – Tuesday: 09:30 – 17:45
Wednesday: 09:30 – 20:45
Thursday – Friday: 09:30 – 17:45
Saturday: 09:45 – 13:00 & 14:00 – 17:00
Sunday: Closed

 

Connect

Feedback

University of London Senate House Library

CNAA logo