This Land is his Land

At 73, abstract master Sean Scully’s calendar is as crowded as ever. A new exhibition in Dublin, The Land/The Line, celebrates his gifts

Sean Scully: ‘I want my paintings to be obvious, so you feel I have painted something you were thinking yourself’

Herculean is the best word to describe Sean Scully, in terms not just of his considerable height, but his presence. In a crowded room, everyone else somehow seems smaller.

“Art does not need to make sense or to function or to demonstrate any particular idea. It testifies to the beauty of imperfect human thought and action muddled up with feeling.” That was how he once summed it up. His late father saw it ...