Backs Fronts Windows 1993

Sean Scully, sometime in the last few decades, made this abstract painting with oil paint. It’s all about vertical stripes and blocky rectangles, and it gives you the sensation of peering at buildings, right? It’s like a puzzle where the pieces don’t quite fit, but that’s what makes it interesting. Look at the textures: the brushstrokes are so visible, it's like he wants you to see the process of painting itself. The colors are earthy – reds, oranges, blacks, whites – and they feel both grounded and kind of jarring when put up against each other. The way he layers the paint, it feels thick in some spots, thin in others, like he’s building up a history on the canvas. Notice the almost-but-not-quite symmetry; it’s like he's playing with our expectations. Scully reminds me of Agnes Martin, who was also interested in grids and stripes, but Scully's got this raw, almost messy energy to him that makes you want to reach out and touch the painting. It's a conversation, right? Between artists, between colors, between you and the artwork. It’s more about feeling than understanding.