The etching room where I made the Raval prints, in Barcelona, is quite dark. There was something very romantic about the whole thing, the light coming into the room, black proofing ink, rags lying around, smoke, the smell of things, acid in the air. Everything is quite dark and everything has got the color of copper. It is copper on old wood and this has an incredible resonance, physical resonance and you have all these pieces of metal that are somewhat distressed and you pick and cut and make into plates. The whole thing is very physical and very atmospheric at the same time and what comes out of this is something that you would not imagine would be possible out of your surroundings, because there is not color anywhere. Its all dark, black and brown.

Sean Scully, interview with Julia Klüser, in Sean Scully, Prints: Catalogue raisonné 1968–1999, Vienna: Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Gravelines: Musée du Dessin et de l’Etampile Originale, Wuppertal: Von der Heydt-Museum, 1999, pp. 143–145 (p. 144).