I never abandoned geometry but my work stopped being flat and gave up its search for geometrical perfection as Mondrian, for example, had done. In searching for a more human and spiritual dimension I began to look for a synthesis between colour learnt from nature and cultural memory, as if bridging the divide and going back in time to Cimabue and Velazquez. I love Spain for its spiritual sense and its colour. Velazquez’s colour, his whites, blacks, pinks and his melancholy. I am not drawn to tragedy: I believe that it is always possible to overcome it and that in the end a ray of light will shine through. I try to express light, and express hope. That’s how I would sum up my ambition and though my work is not in fashion, I trust that there are people ready to support it.

Sean Scully, cited in Maria Lluïsa Borràs, ‘Sean Scully: Immensely human’,
Sean Scully (exhibition catalogue), Barcelona: Galeria Carles Taché, 2003, n.p.