Back then I thought that with time Europe would become like that United States which I considered to be the ultimate in progress. But I’m glad to say that I have had a radical change of mind. The Europe of today outstrips by far that country which, nowadays, is partly an artificial, virtual world. Any given town in the United States is absolutely identical to any other town. Everything is uniform, eerily similar. There are people who have no idea what roots are and are ready to move to another place for whatever reason. The worst thing is that they cannot understand European quality. They don’t seem to understand that people in Europe have their own criteria, different from the established, and that that is what drives them to rebel, to break the rules. For me the North American world is largely flat and anonymous. Nowadays the difference with Europe is greater than before, much more than thirty years ago.

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