DETAIL : Sean SCULLY Ireland 1945  Robe figure, 2003 2003 Painting oil on canvas
 
 
Sean SCULLY | Bigland

 
SCULLY, Sean
Ireland 1945
to Great Britain 1949, to United States of America 1975
Bigland 1987-88
painting
oil on canvas
canvas 244.7 (h) x 406.7 (w) cm
not signed, not dated
Purchased 1988
NGA 1989.511
VIEW: Article | PROVENANCE |

Bigland was called Bigland with the idea of America in mind … [In] Bigland, which is typical of that period, the physicality of the paint [and] of the building of the painting is quite strong, strident and, of course, quite masculine … Bigland is a wall with an abutment and a window. The sides of the canyons in America go some way in explaining abstract expressionism — though of course it was essentially urban, with a sense of the American rural sublime. My own work has been informed also by this duality — being in the vastness of America and working in the grid of New York, carrying with me the love of the intimate compacted European painted surface.

Sean Scully, letter to Michael Desmond, Curator, International Art
(European and American painting and sculpture), [received]
15 November 1999, National Gallery of Australia file 81/1173, folios 82–84.

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