Provenance
Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2016
Exhibited
London, Timothy Taylor Gallery, Sean Scully: Horizon, November 1 - December 17, 2016, pp. A15, B39 (illustrated, p. B35)
Catalogue Essay
In Sean Scully’s monumental Landline Red Veined, 2016, horizontal bands of rich crimson, deep blue and purple hues traverse the aluminum surface from left to right. The artist’s brushstrokes reveal the dark under layer which grounds the composition, all seven ribbons of color each mixing differently with the pigment beneath. The resulting abstractions which form Scully's Landline series are harmonious paintings with emotional undertones; they are rooted in nostalgia, informed by the artist’s memories of natural surroundings from his life travels. Born in Dublin, raised in London and now living and working out of his Chelsea studio in New York, Scully recalls that the first time he was inspired by a horizon line occurred while looking out at the sea on Ireland’s Aran Islands in Galway Bay. The memory has since inspired the artist’s ongoing series of Landline works, which were first revealed to the international public at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2015. Today, this renowned series is the subject of a show at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C. which began in September, marking Scully’s return to the institution since his mid-career retrospective held there in 1995.

In a recent conversation with Patricia Hickson, curator at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, where the exhibited Landline works will travel to from the Hirshhorn, Scully describes this series as an attempt to “rescue abstraction from the abstract” (Sean Scully, quoted in Roger Caitlin, “Sean Scully’s Artworks Are a Study in Color, Horizon and Life’s Sorrows”, Smithsonian Magazine, September 20, 2018, online). While Scully’s monumental works like Landline Red Veined appear to pare painting down to its foundational building blocks of color and form, its origins in the horizon line reveal an undeniable connection to landscape painting. As such, the artist challenges the limitations of abstract painting and imbues it with something tangible. “I was always looking at the horizon line, at the way the end of the sea touches the beginning of the sky, the way the sky presses down on to the sea, and the way that line (that relationship) is painted... I try to paint this, this sense of the elemental coming together side by side, stacked in horizon lines endlessly beginning and ending…” (Sean Scully, quoted in Sean Scully: Horizon, exh. cat., Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, 2016, online).

The first of Scully’s Landline works made in 2012 represented a dramatic shift from the artist’s earlier, more geometric compositions of the late 20th century that recall the minimalist aesthetic of Piet Mondrian. In these more recent works, Scully chooses instead to rely on a looser, more expressive style, inspired by the beauty of the natural world. It is the emotional undertones present in the Landline series that recall the color fields of Mark Rothko, an artist whose work Scully first encountered in 1967. The bands of paint in the present work relate to the thin washes of color Rothko used in his canvases and works on paper. Like Scully’s works, Rothko’s paintings are also grounded in a single underlying pigment on top of which different hues swell to the outer edges of the composition. The resulting relationship between the top and bottom layers of media envelops the viewer in a sublime flow of pure color and form. Having both suffered from psychological trauma and loss, Rothko and Scully sought salvation in their painterly processes, infusing each of their works with a beautiful melancholy that reflected their states of mind. As Scully described of his first Landline work, “I painted it on a quiet Sunday in Chelsea. There was an immense sadness in and around me. In the plants, the living things, the material of the studio. My life has been a story of great sorrow and great love. Landlines stand for edges” (Sean Scully, quoted in Roger Caitlin, “Sean Scully’s Artworks Are a Study in Color, Horizon and Life’s Sorrows”, Smithsonian Magazine, September 20, 2018, online).

20

Sean Scully

Landline Red Veined

signed, titled and dated "LANDLINE RED VEINED Sean Scully 2016" on the reverse
oil on aluminum
85 x 75 in. (215.9 x 190.5 cm.)
Painted in 2016.

Estimate
$900,000 - 1,500,000

Sold for $1,515,000

Contact Specialist
Amanda Lo Iacono
Head of Evening Sale
New York
+1 212 940 1278
aloiacono@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York Auction 15 November 2018

1
Christina Quarles
Pull on Thru Tha Nite
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $225,000
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2
KAWS
UNTITLED (FATAL GROUP)
Estimate $700,000 - 900,000
Sold for $2,716,500
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3
George Condo
Dreaming Nude
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $1,095,000
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4
Joan Miró
Femme dans la nuit
Estimate $12,000,000 - 18,000,000
Sold for $22,590,000
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5
Alexander Calder
Conique noir
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,335,000
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6
Alberto Burri
Grande legno e rosso
Estimate $10,000,000 - 15,000,000
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7
Robert Motherwell
Open No. 153: In Scarlet with White Line
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,295,000
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8
Bruce Nauman
Double Slap in the Face
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $435,000
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9
Bruce Nauman
Masturbating Man
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,757,500
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10
Jean Dubuffet
Le malentendu
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,250,000
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11
Jean Dubuffet
Mademoiselle mine orange
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,755,000
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12
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,575,000
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13
Andy Warhol
Gun
Estimate $7,000,000 - 10,000,000
Sold for $9,540,000
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14
Kerry James Marshall
Terra Incognita
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,775,000
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15
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate $9,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for $9,000,000
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16
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (714-1)
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,295,000
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17
Albert Oehlen
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,515,000
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18
Christopher Wool
Untitled
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
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19
Amy Sillman
U
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $855,000
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20
Sean Scully
Landline Red Veined
Estimate $900,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,515,000
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21
Ed Clark
The Dome
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $125,000
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22
Mark Rothko
Black Blue Painting
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $4,215,000
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23
Jackson Pollock
Number 16
Estimate On Request
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24
Henri Laurens
La Lune
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $2,175,000
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25
Pierre Bonnard
Place Clichy ou les deux élégantes
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $807,000
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26
Rembrandt Bugatti
Lion et lionne de Nubie
Estimate $900,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,095,000
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27
KAWS
CLEAN SLATE
Estimate $900,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,995,000
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28
David Hockney
Ron Kitaj Reading
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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29
This lot is no longer available.
30
Jonas Wood
Michael and Leslie
Estimate $450,000 - 550,000
Sold for $580,500
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31
Giorgio Morandi
Natura morta
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $1,935,000
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32
Wayne Thiebaud
Food Bowls
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,635,000
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33
Donald Judd
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $900,000
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34
Carmen Herrera
Blanco y Verde
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $2,655,000
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35
Dan Flavin
untitled (to Philip Johnson)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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36
David Hammons
African American Flag
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,657,500
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37
Kerry James Marshall
We Mourn Our Loss #1
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
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38
This lot is no longer available.
39
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40
Marlene Dumas
Cultural Exchange (Mummie wants to go home)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $975,000
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41
Karin Mamma Andersson
The Blank Memories Always Open From the South
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $162,500
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20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York Auction 15 November 2018

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Provenance

Exhibited

Catalogue Essay

20

Sean Scully

Landline Red Veined

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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