Sean Scully Turns His Talents To A Children’s Book Review by Max Berlinger
When renowned abstract painter Sean Scully wanted to embark on a new journey into the world of children’s literature, he decided to consult someone who was familiar with the world and whom he knew quite well: his son, Oisín, now age 14. The result is Jack the Wolf, a whimsical and enchantingly illustrated fairytale aimed at children ages five to seven. It marks Scully’s first venture into art aimed at children.
“I think fables and fairy stories are very important for children,” Scully told Artnet News in an exclusive interview. “The Irish are very good at telling stories, I grew up with stories being told like this. So with Jack the Wolf, I created my own fairy tale in the European tradition, of a world in which there are mistakes made. It is a moral tale, we are promoting vegetarianism, and advice is imparted, through the partnership of men and women. Eventually, harmony is achieved. Harmony is very important for a children’s book.”
The genesis of the book came when Oisín was five years old, and experienced separation anxiety when his father would drop him off at school. Instead, Scully would linger at the school, and think of the many stories he would tell Oisin later to help him fall asleep.
“I made up quite a few stories,” he said. “This is just one of them, and I could have made more, but I decided on one. So I wrote it up at his school.” (...)
The story and collaboration is especially poignant, since Scully lost another son, Paul, in a car accident when he was just 19. In 2019, the artist showed some rare figurative works in Venice that were, in part, a memorial to his late son. The abstract work Paul was was painted a year after his death in his memory. Jack the Wolf is, in a way, the ongoing demonstration that life and art are inexorably entwined, and that art can be a place of great healing and communion.
“As with any kid, I would have to pick my moment with Oisin, to get him to participate,” Scully said. “We made some of the drawings when we were on holiday together, and he would spend about ten minutes at a time, adding to them. For example, in the one with the cupboards, I painted the drawers and Jack the Wolf, and then Oisin drew in the little jars and the chocolate bars. The jar that sits on top of the cupboards, the one that breaks the picture frame, that was drawn by Oisin too.”
