Sean Scully: a romantic geometry of colors Exhibition at the Centre Pompidou

Over the course of his 50-year career, Sean Scully has created an influential body of work that has marked the development of contemporary abstraction. After a major donation to the Musée national d'art moderne, a selection of the American artist's paintings spanning from the early 1970s to his most recent pieces is currently shown at Centre Pompidou. 

Michel Gauthier, curator of the Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou, writes:

'Sean Scully is widely recognized for his broad, colorful bands, often segmented and with vibrant edges, that structure his frequently large-format paintings. This visual language, developed in the 1980s and refined over the subsequent decades, has earned Scully's work significant international acclaim. The exhibition at the Centre Pompidou is notable for juxtaposing some of these iconic paintings with works from the 1970s and early 1980s. (...) 

If there is one aspect of Scully's painting that most clearly rejects literalism and self-referentiality, it is undoubtedly his use of color. Over time, his colors have become increasingly nuanced and complex, leading to the chromatic achievements of the last two decades, as seen in works like Doric Sky (2011), Landline Far (2020), and Plough (2023). These works solidify Scully's reputation as one of the greatest colorists of our time. Each band of color in his paintings contains multiple shades within itself.

"I seek to make what we feel visible", Scully says, echoing the spirit of Cézanne, in whose city he plans to spend more and more time. (...) Scully’s painting is similar to Cézanne primarily because it is conceived as a painting of sensation. He presents his canvases as, in a sense, "unresolved." Only the sensations, emotions, and feelings that arise within the viewer can bring them to resolution.' 

Centre Georges Pompidou
Level 4, Room 24