Sean Scully’s 1981 painting “Backs and Fronts,” which has been called “a 20-foot-wide manifesto,” consists of 11 striped panels in varying widths, heights, and colors. Brushstrokes were visible, there was no grid, and the work had “broken free of the constriction of taped lines,” according to the Parrish Art Museum.
Kelly Grovier of the BBC elaborated on that, saying, “It changed the course of art history . . . by restoring to abstract painting a dimension it had lost — its capacity for intense feeling.”
“Backs and Fronts” is the starting point of “Sean Scully: The Albee Barn, Montauk,” a show of more than 70 works ranging from 1981 to 2024. Set to open Sunday, it was organized in collaboration with the artist by Mónica Ramirez-Montagut, the Parrish’s executive director, with Kaitlin Halloran, its associate curator and publications manager. From “Backs and Fronts,” the show tracks to 1982, when Mr. Scully spent a month in residence at the Edward F. Albee Foundation in Montauk.
“During that time he immersed himself in nature,” Ms. Halloran said. The Irish-born painter had grown up in Dublin and London and was living on Duane Street in TriBeCa at that time, “so it was really a pivotal moment for him. The colors start to shift, but it’s much more pivotal in the sense of an experience he had, going down to the beach and really taking in Montauk and what it has to offer.” There are 15 of the Montauk paintings in the exhibition, which have come from private collections as well as Mr. Scully’s own.
The show also includes works from his “Wall of Light” series, which was last seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Those paintings were inspired by a trip to Mexico in the early ‘80s, where he was fascinated by the play of light and shadow on Mayan ruins.
Work from his “Landline” series, which was shown at the Venice Biennale before traveling to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., will also be on view. The exhibition concludes with a series of monumental assemblage paintings begun in 2024 and being shown for the first time at the Parrish.
Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated catalog that includes two interpretive essays, an interview with the artist, a detailed chronology, and an essay on the role the Edward F. Albee Foundation has played with artists through the years.
A conversation between Mr. Scully and Ms. Ramirez-Montagut will take place Saturday evening at 7. Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for senior citizens, $10 for members’ guests, and free for members, resident benefits passholders, students, and children.
