Product Description

Sean Scully's photographs, with their horizontal and vertical shards of limestone, echo his painted work, revealing a creative process expressed through abstract shapes.

Sean Scully is one of today's most esteemed painters, whose familiar signature style of lines or bands of color is instantly recognizable. Scully is also an accomplished photographer, his eye drawn in particular to architectural shapes that have clear affinities with his painted work.

During the summer of 2005, he spent time on the remote Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland, photographing the ancient dry-stone walls that criss-cross the stark and barren landscape. This book brings together for the first time his sensitive images, revealing the unexpected yet monumental beauty of these centuries-old structures that meander across the windswept and rocky islands. In their form and spirit, the photographs shed light on Scully's own sensibilities as an artist. They also capture the stillness and serenity of this rugged, timeless place on the edge of Europe.

An evocative text by the award-winning Irish writer Colm Tóibín conveys the mysterious beauty of the three Aran Islands. 75 duotone photographs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88465 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

Language Notes
Text: French

About the Author
Sean Scully has had major museum exhibitions in America and Europe, and his work is found in important collections worldwide. Colm Tóibín's novels include The Master, winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Customer Reviews

Sean Scully as Sean Scully - and that is enough
Sean Scully has had a successful career for the past few decades painting what he loves most: line and bars of color that are immediately recognizable as his work but at the same time presenting an endless exploration of light and color using this format the way a conjurer would. His paintings have not varied in style but his palette his grown progressively more sophisticated.

This major volume by Thames and Hudson explores the life of Scully from the 1950s in England to his various studios throughout the world. Not only is the book filled with very fine color reproductions of his work, but it also enters his studios, showing us the artist as personality.

The text is by David Carrier and instead of the usual 'point and tell' manner of writing he uses the background of his experience as an art historian and critic to unveil the mysteries of Scully's paintings. This is not unlike the manner in which other writers have approached painters such as Mark Rothko, where the words enhance the appreciation of the wash of color that sweeps through this book. Highly recommended - the finest monograph on this uniquely successful painter. Grady Harp, December 06

Take a French Class before ordering.
Beautiful illustrations but all of the text is in French. I guess Thames and Hudson think only the French have an appreciation for great art.