Sean Scully’s Wall x 2. 3.10.23, 2023 continues his long-standing engagement with abstraction, structure, and the interplay of colour and form. Composed of two self-contained grid compositions, the work features interlocking blocks of green, yellow, black, grey, and red. This dual arrangement, characteristic of Scully’s mature style, underscores his ongoing investigation into the relationships between geometry, light, and emotional resonance.

Scully’s Wall of Light series, initiated in the 1990s, finds its origins in his travels to Mexico in the early 1980s, where he became captivated by the way light animated the surfaces of ancient Mayan stone walls. The modular, layered compositions in these works recall the weathered facades of these ruins, imbuing abstraction with a palpable sense of history and place. While Wall x 2. 3.10.23 departs from the explicitly referential titles of the Wall of Light paintings, it retains the same dialogue between structure and organic irregularity, evoking the tension between order and spontaneity.

Scully's career has been shaped by a confluence of influences. Born in Dublin and raised in London, he initially trained in figurative painting before embracing abstraction, inspired by the works of Mark Rothko and Bridget Riley. His early experiments with hard-edged minimalism gave way to a more expressive and tactile approach in the 1980s, marked by visible brushwork and a dynamic use of colour. The Wall series exemplifies this evolution, with compositions that balance precision and gestural energy, solidity and luminosity.

Wall x 2. 3.10.23 reflects Scully’s sustained interest in the expressive potential of abstract form. The juxtaposition of its two grid structures suggests both continuity and rupture, reinforcing the artist’s preoccupation with themes of duality and memory. As with much of his work, the piece invites contemplation of surface, space, and the ways in which colour and form can evoke deeply felt, almost architectural, emotional landscapes.