Tapestry is the title of the just opened exhibition of new work by world renowned, unstoppable Sean Scully – who turned 80 this year – at the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin. It brings together four distinct bodies of work rooted in a deep engagement with the emotional potential of abstraction. There are recent pencil on paper drawings; hand woven tapestries in collaboration with Mourne Textiles with the drawn line translated into fibre, texture and weight; new large paintings from the Stack series and a selection of new oil on copper paintings. Modest in scale these are rich in colour and emotional depth. The show highlights how drawing functions as a foundational structure in Scully’s work and reveals how Scully’s practice is constructed line by line. Marks accumulate and interlock and are layered into larger forms. The show runs until January 24. Pictured here is Tappan Wall Yellow, 2025, an oil on copper at Kerlin. Another show by Scully – Blue – opens today at Thaddaeus Ropac Marais in Paris and runs until January 17.
Sean Scully (b.1945) – Robe (2002). UPDATE: THIS MADE 30,000 AT HAMMER
This watercolour over pencil by Sean Scully comes up as lot 40 at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art on September 24. The estimate is €30,000-€50,000. The initial inspiration for the robe series was the Book of Durrow at Trinity College, Dublin, dated to the latter half of the 7th Century. Scully was taken with a page featuring a remarkable representation of St Matthew the Evangelist. The saint is attired in a lavish robe with a flatly rendered geometric chequerboard pattern, incorporating diagonal panels. It’s so striking it appears anachronistic, as though an abstract composition has been transported back through time. Viewing for the auction gets underway in Dublin on September 19 and the catalogue is online.
Sean Scully has just turned 80 and to mark the occasion the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg is mounting a comprehensive retrospective. Sean Scully Stories , which runs until November 2, features artworks spanning over six decades, with large scale paintings, works on paper, sculpture and photographs. The retro format highlights how the acclaimed Dublin born artist continuously explores new forms of expression and re-interprets abstraction. For him nothing is truly abstract, his art is an expression of self-perception and photos in the show reveal the visual sources of his inspiration. Sean Scully now lives and works between New York, London and Mooseurach in the south of Germany.
A Valentia slate chair by Edwyn James Hickey of Limerick at Art Evolve at the RDS. Picture: Abe Neihum.
Art Evolve at the RDS in Dublin from April 4 – 6 will bring leading contemporary galleries and artists together with industry professionals. Members of the Contemporary Art Gallery Association will join forces with established galleries to assemble leading Irish and international contemporary art. It will feature an installation by street artist Maser showcasing various chapters of his working life and offering visitors the chance to engage with the artist.
Works by world renowned abstract painter Sean Scully, celebrated sculptor Eilis O’Connell and Aosdána member Patrick Graham will feature at Art Evolve.
“The demand for high-end, modern art is dynamic at the moment and Art Evolve will highlight the latest work by our best living artists in an exciting and immersive setting,” said show organiser, Patrick O’Sullivan. “It is the ideal opportunity for collectors and the culturally curious to experience some of the best contemporary art currently being created in Ireland, and to get some expert advice and guidance from leading galleries,” he said.
Sean Scully – Raval 7 (1996) (€3,000-5,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,000 AT HAMMER
The Fishing Village by Colin Middleton leads Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale which ends from 6.30 pm next Tuesday. It is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. There is art by Liam O’Neill, Felim Egan, Stephen McKenna, Arthur Maderson, Sean Scully, Mark O’Neill, Graham Knuttel, Kenneth Webb, Dan O’Neill and a wide variety of other popular artists.
The auction kicks off with an untitled (1973) gouache on paper by Tony O’Malley. Vividly coloured it is estimated at €1,000-€1,500. This is followed by a gouache of a Lily Pond by Mainie Jellett (€1,200-€1,800).
Colin Middleton (1910-1983) – The Fishing Village. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Italian 17th century style copper water cistern at Fonsie Mealy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,800 AT HAMMER
Art, luxury and the Epsom Gold Cup will vie for the attention of collectors next week. With a selection headed by Sean Scully’s Wall Dark Green (2021) – on course to possibly become the most expensive painting to be sold this year in Ireland – the Irish and international online art sale by Morgan O’Driscoll on October 22 is a must see.
A 17th century style Italian copper water cistern at Fonsie Mealys Chatsworth autumn fine art sale in Castlecomer on October 23 and 24 will undoubtedly leave some viewers with a sense of deja vu. For many decades this unusual piece graced the storied Park Hotel in Kenmare, which came under new ownership last November. The estimate is €5,000-€7,000.
The sale offers more than 100 lots from this luxurious hotel including a suite of four landscape scenes from the circle of Flemish baroque painter David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) which graced the main stairway. The estimate is €3,000-€4,000.
Wall Dark Green (2021) by Sean Scully at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Old Road, Caherciveen by Jack Butler Yeats ( €180,000-€240,000), Study of Self (1994) by Louis le Brocquy (€120,000-€180,000) and Gerard Dillon’s The Table in the Blue Room (€100,000-€150,000) are among leading lots at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale. The 172 lots on offer include a seductive selection of work by artists ranging from Roderic O’Conor, George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson and Donald Teskey to Patrick Scott, Genieve Figgis and Felim Egan.
There is sculpture by John Behan and highly collectible work by Frank Auerbach, Albert Irvin and William Scott in a sale that is on view all weekend and on Monday at the RDS.
Meantime Fonsie Mealy offers racegoers a chance to bag the Epsom Gold Cup from 1963. It was won in 1963 by Mrs Anne Biddle’s homebred L’Homme Arme, trained by Tommy Shaw. Born Anne Bullitt in Philadelphia she was daughter of US Ambassador William Bullitt and became, in 1966, the first woman in Ireland to be allowed a trainers licence.
Cork Butter Trade made his Pile by Stephen O’Driscoll (1825-1895) at Fonsie Mealy. UPDATE: THE COLLECTION MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
It is unusual to find at auction a group of no less than eight charismatic Cork silhouettes by Stephen O’Driscoll (1825-1895). These ones, to be sold as a collection at Fonsie Mealy, have typical titles like Cork Butter Trade made his Pile, The Man Wot Weighted the Cat, Cork Beggars Opera, The Council of War – a Volcano Row and The Two Paddys Blowing up the Mansion House. The estimate is €2,000-€3,000.
The most expensively estimated lot is an Irish Victorian giltwood side table (€20,000-€30,000) made by Arthur Jones in Dublin in 1853 and exhibited that year at The Irish Industrial Exhibition in Dublin. At the other end of the price scale, with estimates from €20 euro up, are silver teaspoons, dessert forks, butter knives and sugar tongs. Viewing at Castlecomer is from 1 pm to 5 pm tomorrow and from 10 am to 5 pm on Monday and Tuesday. The catalogue with almost 1,000 lots in total is online.
George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson – HMS Conqueror and HMS Duke of Wellington in Cork Harbour (1858) at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS MADE 34,000 AT HAMMER
A sizzling painting by Sean Scully will lead Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art auction which runs until October 22. Wall Dark Green (2021) is typical of Scully’s newer works in the continually expanding Wall of Light series, which are noted for an intensity of colour. This one is estimated at €500,000-€700,000. The sale is on view in Skibbereen on October 12, 13 and 14 and at the RDS in Dublin from October 18-21. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Heart of Darkness – an etching by Sean Scully UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
Bidding on the current Irish art online auction by Morgan O’Driscoll runs until September 9. The sale features work by Sean Scully, Mainie Jellett, Donald Teskey, Francis Tansey, Kenneth Webb, Nano Reid, Dan O’Neill, Graham Knuttel and many other artists. The catalogue is online.
Bringing Soul to Seoul is the mission of international art gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, courtesy of the Irish artist Sean Scully. The exhibition titled Soul brings together six new works from his Wall of Light and Landline series. With their steel grey undertones these paintings trace Scully’s return to London. The artist cites “the muscular light of Constable” as a key inspiration as he integrates darkness and light in his abstract language with subtly variegated blocks of blue, red, green and purple laid down on copper, aluminium and linen. “I’m really in the business of unifying these two tendencies that have been at odds in our human history for a very long time” he has said, “the logical and the romantic”. Sean Scully, Soul is at Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul Fort Hill from September 3 to November 9.
JOHN BEHAN (B.1938) – FAMINE SHIP. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This 2024 famine ship by John Behan is lot 109 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction which runs until June 24. The bronze is estimated at €15,000-€20,000. The auction features work by artists as varied as Letitia M Hamilton and Nano Reid to Patrick Hennessy, Harry Kernoff and Barbara Warren. Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Sean Scully are on the catalogue along with Brian Maguire, Willie McKeown and Felim Egan. The catalogue is online and the sale will be on view in Skibbereen from June 20.
