Sean Scully: Resistance and Persistance : Selected Writings [Hardcover]

Florence Ingleby (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2006

Sean Scully (born in 1945) is one of the leading painters of our time. His career has been built on an apparently simple recipe of painted stripes and bars, and yet these bricks of colour offer unsettlingly complex possibilities. When Scully writes, his ideas work their own slow magic, and behind the deadpan delivery lurks a concise and considered understanding of the nature of painting and what it means to be an artist in the twenty-first century. This unprecedented collection of Scully writings, interspersed with superb reproductions of the artist's paintings, includes his thoughts on Matisse, Morandi, Newman, Rothko and Van Gogh, alongside lectures given on his own work and his musings on such varied themes as life, love, colour, criticism, creativity and the machinations of the international art world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Sean Scully's book is lustrously knitted from transcribed lectures and catalogue essays, with several short epigrams and an interview thrown in - TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

About the Author

Florence Ingleby is a director of the Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh. Sean Scully has had over 120 solo exhibitions worldwide. He has studios in New York, London and Barcelona, and in Munich, where he is a part-time professor of painting at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Merrell Publishers (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858943515
• ISBN-13: 978-1858943510
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #734,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Any collection with Scully's art needs this first-person analysis, key to understanding., December 13, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sean Scully: Resistance and Persistance : Selected Writings (Hardcover)

SEAN SCULLY: RESISTANCE AND PERSISTENCE SELECTED WRITINGS comes form one of the leading modern painters working in the arts, whose career has been built on abstract painted stripes and bars in muted colors. These works are exhibited in major holds throughout the world, but these writings here are key to understanding them, presenting his writings for the first time along with reproductions of his paintings. College-level art library holdings will find this an important addition to their collections, offering up insights into how Scully works, his art and inspirations, and artistic metaphors specific to pieces. Any collection with Scully's art needs this first-person analysis, key to understanding.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep Thinkers are Fine Artists, October 10, 2007

By 

Jim Lourie (James Lourie) "artist" (Bellingham, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sean Scully: Resistance and Persistance : Selected Writings (Hardcover)

Sean Scully is one of our finest artists alive. This book is a tribute to his ability, passion and reflection. There are only a few books as well written by any artist. I highly recommend this book for practicing artists and for anyone who is lost in the contemporary art scene. Scully links us to our cultural past, which is all but forgotten in this Warhol, materialistic society. Buy this book. You will not regret it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful convergence of philosophy and painting, June 18, 2009

By 

Paul Ruiz (Melbourne AU) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sean Scully: Resistance and Persistance : Selected Writings (Hardcover)

The clarity and depth of Scully's reflections on the meaning and making of art are matched only by the tenacity of a sustained and credible studio practice. This work provides penetrating insights into the nature and place of painting in contemporary life, offering up metaphors about it that should help guide an artist through a maze of self-imposed constraints and limitations just when they need it most. As a painter I cannot recommend this book enough as a resource that will help extend and challenge your thinking, but more importantly, your work and your conviction about it's place in the world.