Editing Sean Scully (section)

=== Departure from Minimalism: 1980–1982 ===
[[File:Backs and Fronts by Sean Scully.jpg|thumb|''Backs and Fronts'', 1981, oil on linen and canvas. [[Kerlin Gallery]], Dublin.]]
By 1980 Scully considered himself to be at war with the movement of Minimalism in New York and wanted to bring more human elements into his art.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Inner : the collected writings and selected interviews of Sean Scully|last=Scully|first=Sean|year=2016|isbn=978-3-7757-4164-4|pages=290|publisher=Hatje Cantz |oclc=994772412}}</ref> He made multiple trips to Morocco and Mexico during this time, as he considered these trips to have “a direct bearing on what I think art should be doing – which is concentrating on what’s interesting, engaging, perverse, and beautiful about human nature.”<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/ynKoopfmNZU Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200229005303/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynKoopfmNZU Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media|people=Sean Scully on Henri Matisse|date=14 June 1992|title=Artists' Journeys|medium=Video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynKoopfmNZU|publisher=BBC Two}}{{cbignore}}</ref> He later commented that “I had decided that what had been stripped out of painting—i.e., the ability to make relationships, to be metaphorical and referential, spiritual, poetic, all those things and aspects of human nature—had to be put back in if painting was to go forward.”<ref>{{Cite book|title=Inner : the collected writings and selected interviews of Sean Scully|last=Scully|first=Sean|year=2016|isbn=978-3-7757-4164-4|pages=41|publisher=Hatje Cantz |oclc=994772412}}</ref>
In 1981 the first retrospective of Sean Scully's work was held at the [[Ikon Gallery]] in [[Birmingham]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cristearoberts.com/artists/84-sean-scully/|title=Sean Scully|website=Cristea Roberts Gallery|access-date=2019-12-15}}</ref> This was also the year that Scully's confidence to withdraw from adherence to Minimalism became apparent, with the return of color and space, and the freehand drawing of stripes and visible brushstrokes, rather than the hard lines of tape.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1995/06/18/sean-scullys-many-sided-rectangles/7d03d3cb-1f81-412a-bdc9-7184dd8a2b16/|title=SEAN SCULLY'S MANY-SIDED RECTANGLES|last=Lewis|first=Jo Ann|date=1995-06-18|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=2019-12-17|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> Scully had a breakthrough with the seminal 1981 painting ''Backs and Fronts'', which had a profound impact in the 1982 exhibition 'Critical Perspectives' at the [[PS1 Contemporary Art Center]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RY4iBEhepysC&q=sean+scully&pg=PA245|title=The Aesthete in the City: The Philosophy and Practice of American Abstract Painting in the 1980s|date=1994|publisher=Penn State Press|isbn=978-0-271-04297-8|page=262}}</ref> This was a watershed painting which British conceptual artist [[Gillian Wearing]] has said “broke the logjam of American minimalist painting”.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.designcurial.com/news/curated-diary-191114-4443766/|title=Gillian Wearing picks her top art, design and architecture events|publisher=DesignCurial|website=designcurial.com|access-date=2019-12-14}}</ref>