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RA Magazine talks to Joe TIlson RA
Photograph by Eamonn McCabe.
RA Magazine talks to Chris Wilkinson RA
Photograph by Julian Anderson.
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Photograph by Eamonn McCabe.
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Photograph by Julian Anderson.
Born: 30 June 1945
Elected RA: 12 December 2012
Category of Membership: Painter
Sean Scully, 'Doric Grey'. Oil. 70 × 92 cm. Sean Scully was born in Dublin, moved to London in 1949 and settled in America in the mid-1970s. Today he splits his time between New York City, Barcelona and Munich.
Having studied at the Central School of Art, Croydon College of Art and Newcastle University, Scully was awarded a Frank Knox Fellowship at Harvard University (1972 – 1973), a Harkness Fellowship in 1975 and has held teaching posts at Chelsea School of Art and Design, Goldsmith’s College, and Princeton University.
Scully is best known as a painter of monumental works in oil, although he is also a printmaker, producing woodcuts and etchings. He abandoned figurative work in the mid-1960s and has since established a reputation as an abstract painter. Drawing on the traditions of Abstract Expressionism, he creates strongly articulated pieces: canvases on heavy stretchers, abutting panels and architectural constructions that project themselves into the viewer’s space. Abandoning precise delineation for a looser, more painterly handling of paint, his use of colour, subtle nuances and stark contrasts testifies to a concern with light and beauty.
He had his first major exhibition at the Rowan Gallery in 1973 and today his work is held in major public collections worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Tate, London.
Recent solo exhibitions
2013 Dublin City Gallery, Ireland
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporaneo, Rome, Italy
2012 - 2013 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern
2011 Kerlin Gallery, Dublin
2010 Alexander and Bonin, New York
Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
2009 - 2010 Ulster Museum, Belfast
2009 Galerie Lelong, New York
Walter Storms Galerie, Munich
2008 Galerie Lelong, Paris
Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma (MACRO), Rome
2007 - 2008 Naples Museum of Art, Naples
2007 Galerie Jamileh Weber, Zürich
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington
2006 - 2007 Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
2006 Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
2005 - 2006 The Phillips Collection, Washington
2005 Galeria Carles Taché, Barcelona
2004 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Galeria Estiarte, Madrid
Neues Museum Weimar, Weimar
2003 Hôtel des Arts, Toulon
2002 Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticicia, Rio de Janeiro
Sean Scully, Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden
Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Valencia
2001 Haus der Kunst, Munich
Knoedler & Company, New York
2000 Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, Caen
A+A Galleria D’Arte, Venice
Alan Cristea Gallery, London
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Public Collections
Arts Council of Great Britain, London, UK
Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Ontario, Canada
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, UK
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA
Dublin City Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
Fogg Art Museum (Harvard University), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, UK
Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, Ireland
Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Museum Moderner Kunst (MUMOK), Vienna, Austria
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York, UK
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany
Tate, London, UK
The British Museum, London, UK
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
Contact details for further information
Email membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk
