Sean Scully

Acquired directly from the Artist, and thence by descent to the present owner

Original canvas. The work is in two parts- the central section is on its own stretcher which has been inserted into the centre of the composition. The work is in generally excellent overall condition with strong passages of impasto and a richly textured surface. Ultraviolet light reveals no apparent signs of retouching. The work is unframed. Please telephone the department on 0207 293 5560 if you have any questions about the present work.
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'My work is an attempt to release the spirit through formal strength and very direct painting...' (Scully, quoted in David Carrier, Sean Scully, Thames and Hudson, London, 2006, p.91).

By the late 1980s Scully had fully developed the bold dynamic style evident in the present work. Following on from the formal compositional arrangement and handling of his work in the 1970s such as Black on Black (1978-79, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sophia, Madrid) where he would wait for each stripe and layer of colour to fully dry before applying a new colour, Full Heart exemplifies the looser and more spontaneous handling he adopted, applying wet paint straight onto wet paint and deliberately using brushes that left visible and textured marks. Moreover, in contrast to earlier works from the decade such as By Night and By Day (1983, see lot 36), Scully began to introduce central constructions into his larger compositions which provided a new focus and opened up a fresh dialogue between the various striped elements of the painted canvas.

The intense colour combinations of the present work uniting a daring yellow with grey and a rich burgundy with black are also indicative of the artist's more optimistic outlook during the end of the decade, exemplified by the positive choice of title: Full Heart. In 1987, he had painted Empty Heart (Private Collection) and explained: 'these paintings were made during a period of great sorrow in my life when my son died... [Empty Heart] is a very barren painting; there is a kind of ferocity about it that one might see in an African mask. African masks always have a kind of savage beauty... (Scully, 1995, quoted in Florence Ingleby (ed.), Sean Scully, Resistance and Persistence: Selected Writings, Merrell, London 2006, p.58). By contrast, in Full Heart the vibrant juxtapositions of colour resonate throughout the composition and are heightened by the lively texture of the artist's energetic brushstrokes.