Wall of Light Desert Night 1999

Sean Scully made this painting, Wall of Light Desert Night, with oil on canvas, layering rectangular shapes like a patchwork quilt of color. Look closely, and you'll see how the rectangles aren’t perfect. The brushstrokes are visible, thick in some places, thin in others, revealing the process of its making. The colors are muted, cool blues and grays against a golden yellow, like moonlight reflecting on the sand. It's like Scully built a wall of feeling, brick by brick. There is a dark navy rectangle in the upper left; it looks like a shadow, adding depth and mystery to the composition. Scully reminds me a little of Agnes Martin. He’s interested in a very similar process of building a painting through repeated marks. Like Martin, he is invested in the emotional resonance of abstraction, embracing ambiguity.