Mexico OSTULA 1983

Sean Scully made this watercolor painting, Mexico OSTULA, on paper in 1983, and it feels like a distillation of form and emotion. The stripes, rendered in simple blues and yellows, remind me of Agnes Martin but with a twist. Up close, you can see how the watercolor bleeds and pools, creating these soft, fuzzy edges. The colors aren't uniform, shifting and changing within each stripe. Look at the blue-green bar in the painting's top left, where the paint is more saturated at the top, fading towards the bottom. It’s like Scully is letting the water do its thing, embracing the unpredictable nature of the medium. This balance between control and chance is what makes the work so compelling. It suggests that art-making is not just about imposing order, but about allowing for the unexpected, embracing the beauty of imperfection.