About the Work
The canvas as a mirror of reality - one of the great metaphors that recur in painting. In his 'Pale Mirror', Sean Scully takes it up in the title and demonstrates its validity even for non-representational painting. The pale-coloured bars, whose geometric forms and arrangement initially appear completely abstract, are not only an expression of the intellectual rigour one finds, for example, in the works of Piet Mondrian. The differently executed rectangles - whose surfaces are sometimes smooth, sometimes rough; whose edges are not only sharp, but also soft; which are drawn with large brushstrokes; and which seem to conceal a black background - convey a particular form of sensuousness. The resulting contrast of Minimalist elements and emotional painting releases a tension which the artist balances out in an act of painterly equilibrium - an appeal for a reality which is only to be found in the fragile in-between spaces.
