This intensely focused survey comprises Sean Scully’s (b. 1945, Dublin, Ireland) acrylic, ink, graphite, and masking-tape drawings from 1974–75—presented together for the first time in over 30 years—as well as two large-scale paintings from the same period and one of the artist’s personal notebooks. Scully’s maturation as a painter can easily be traced back to innovations in his early drawings. These drawings are marked by refined geometries that re-imagine the history of abstraction as an art rooted in experience—“something felt and something seen,” as the artist has said. Executed in London and New York City respectively, the Change and Horizontals drawings, along with their preparatory sketches and never-before-seen experimental typewriter drawings from the same period, highlight Scully’s core concern with line and color’s relation to place. Viewed together, the works chart an evolution of composition and gesture that provides unique insight into this artist’s singular aesthetic. This New York exhibition is the last stop on a tour that included the UK, Germany, and Italy.

Curated by Brett Littman and Joanna Kleinberg Romanow.