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 Scully, an Irish American abstract painter, has moved from busy, hard-edged, brightly colored grid paintings to softer, painterly works with simple, generally rectangular forms and muted but rich colors. Published to accompany an exhibition of his work that originated at the National Gallery of Australia, this small book (only 23 centimenters, or about 8 inches, high) features 128 plates, each paired with a quote from the artist. The introductory essays by Kennedy, former director of the National Gallery of Australia, and other art luminaries like Donald Kuspit and Arthur Danto are uncritical and laudatory, highlighting the physicality of Scully's work and the lushness of his palette. Yet the small-scale reproductions fail to convey those qualities, so the lofty praise seems excessive. And while Scully's paintings, drawings, prints, watercolors, and photographs are represented, his early work is excluded. David Carrier's Sean Scully (2004) reproduces the full breadth of Scully's career and contains reproductions that better showcase the almost sculptural aspects of Scully's paintings and his sensuous brushwork. Not recommended.-Amy K. Weiss, Univ. of California Lib., Santa Barbara Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. |
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