Sean Scully was born in Dublin in 1945, grew up in the south of London, and moved to New York City in 1975. Sean Scully is known for rich, painterly abstractions in which stripes or blocks of layered color are a prevailing motif. The delineated geometry of his work provides structure for an expressive, physical rendering of color, light, and texture. Scully’s simplification of his compositions and use of repetitive forms—squares, rectangles, bands—echoes architectural motifs (doors, windows, walls) and in this way appeals to a universal understanding and temporal navigation of the picture plane. However, the intimacy of Scully’s process, in which he layers and manipulates paint with varying brushstrokes and sensibilities, results in a highly sensual and tactile materiality.

David Carrier taught philosophy in Pittsburgh and art history in Cleveland. He writes art criticism. His In Caravaggio’s Shadow: Naples as a Work of Art (London, 2025) is forthcoming.

Deborah Solomon is the art critic for WNYC. Her reviews appear on Morning Edition and The Brian Lehrer Show. Solomon is a longtime contributor to The New York Times, and she is also a prize-winning biographer. Her books include Jackson Pollock: A Biography and Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell. She is currently writing a biography of the artist Jasper Johns. She lives on the Upper West Side with her husband, Kent Sepkowitz, and their corgi, Belle, a frequent visitor to the American Museum of Natural History dog run.