I was doing an interview with a curator, and he asked me to sum up art in one word. Before he even finished asking the question, I said, 'Impurity.' Because that's it. Sean Scully More Quotes by Sean Scully More Quotes From Sean Scully I do believe abstraction is and was meant to embody deep emotion. I believe that's its job, in the history of art. Sean Scully jobs believe art I work on stretched linen canvas, sized so that the surface already has a sense of tension when I begin. It is a very rich and reactive surface. I begin by drawing on the canvas with a kind of loose line, very simply and freely. I paint very thinly, which allows me to change the drawing if I want to. Sean Scully drawing lines want I was always artistic - right from childhood - but my love of painting came a bit later. It followed my love of music. Sean Scully artistic painting childhood When I got into art school, I thought it was paradise. I wanted to be an artist so much that I was really driven and nothing could stop me. Sean Scully paradise art school The power of a painting has to come from the inside out, not the outside in. It's not just an image. It's an image with a body and that body has to contain its spirit...What's behind it decides everything. How it starts will define how it ends. Sean Scully painting body spirit That's the job of art: to undo the logic of the world. Sean Scully job logic world art Art is transformative. It's not 2+2=4. It works like the sea. It changes geography through its constant and relentless movement, just the way plants and water shape the world. Sean Scully plants sea water art I look at my paintings for a very long time before letting them out of my studio. I like to get on the treadmill and look around at all of my paintings while I exercise. I try to stare them down to make them reveal their weaknesses. If they reveal weaknesses, they get repainted. Sean Scully look long-time time long I'm Irish in the mythic, romantic sense, but in the living sense, I'm a Londoner. Sean Scully irish sense living romantic As a child, the most important people in my life were my pet rabbit and Mary, mother of Jesus. Sean Scully my-life mother life people My father was a genius footballer, a natural, two-footed centre-forward who had played for Arsenal juniors, but he was sent out to work aged 14 and so lived out his life in a frustrated, rageful way. Sean Scully work life father way I've always wanted my art to be global rather than local. I want to make paintings that people everywhere can relate to. Sean Scully always want people art I started at school. When I painted, all the girls would come and sit around me. I realised that this was a really good way to get girlfriends. Sean Scully good me way school When I was a teenager, I was very political. Sean Scully very teenager political I was the only one to go to university, and the last thing my dad wanted was for me to be an artist. But later on, when I bought him a house in the south of Spain, he thought it was all right then. Sean Scully thought me dad house After my son died, I went to a psychiatrist. He proved - or I proved - that Sigmund Freud was correct when he said that the Irish are impervious to psychoanalysis. Sean Scully he psychiatrist said son My art is based on impurity. You have to mix things from different refined cultures to get something raw, to make it go again. Sean Scully things go you art I think that I make chords when I paint, so I think you would be listening to the cello. It's deep, and it's resonant. A lot of people have compared me to Brahms - that slightly melancholic sensuality that's highly structured. Well, that describes my work right there. Sean Scully me you work people I don't think writers should have writer's block. I think they should write. Imagine you were a bus driver and you said, 'I've got bus driver's block.' Get over it. Sean Scully think you bus said I'm quite a social person, quite a communicator, and I like to have the work of other people around. Sean Scully person like work people
