What makes a person an artist? How do works of art and their very own, extraordinary style come into being? And how does the prominent painter view his own work? The world-famous painter Sean Scully met with the philosopher David Carrier for several in-depth interview sessions. Their conversations explore these and many more questions about Scully’s life, work, and ideas. The result is a rich manuscript that very closely approaches the status of autobiography. Scully provides personal insights into his life and the important sources of inspiration for his career. He discusses his own view of his entire oeuvre, of art history and his position within it. Thus, this text becomes a literal eye-opener for Scully’s art, which can be (re)discovered through his words.

Sean Scully is one of today's best-loved abstract painters. His familiar signature style of lines or bands of colour, alluding to architectural elements such as portals, windows and walls, is one of the most instantly recognizable in contemporary painting. This book brings together for the first time his photographs of the dry stone walls found on the Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland.

This catalog, the second volume in a proposed series of five, chronicles Sean Scully's (born 1945) paintings of the 1980s. Beginning with major breakthrough works early in the decade, it profiles the development of Scully's mature style as well as his growing success in America and internationally. Scully, a native of Ireland, was educated in England and moved to the United States in 1975. By the early 1980s, he was established in New York, where he developed a powerful style of richly painted stripes and shapes with a masterly control of color and strongly built canvases. In a period of low regard for abstract painting, Scully reinvigorated the form to include rich evocations of places, literature and emotion.

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 Toibin conveys the mysterious beauty of the three Aran Islands. 75 duotone photographs.