'Sean Scully: Stories' at Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, Germany
9 June 2025
From 27 June – 30 November 2025, the Bucerius Kunst Forum presents ‘Stories’, a comprehensive retrospective of works by Sean Scully. The exhibition includes 60 works from more than six decades of his career, in addition to large-format paintings, works on paper, photographs, and sculptures.
The exhibition demonstrates that abstract art doesn't have to be unapproachable: Anecdotes and background information about the works make Scully's paintings tangible – and they evoke emotions and personal associations within us. His art tells stories, connecting with memories and emotions: Together, we encounter Scully's childhood memories, political experiences, and travel impressions, and experience that Scully's works are characterized by deep melancholy, great joy, and poetic and philosophical reflections.
The exhibition bridges the artist's works and texts. Wall texts and sound samples allow us a personal encounter with abstract painting. The exhibition presents Scully's iconic, large-format paintings alongside discoveries and experiments since the 1960s. Particularly well-known are his works in which he applies multiple layers of oil paint, leaving the texture clearly visible. In addition to their bold application of color and coarse brushstrokes, these paintings are striking for their monumentality and checkerboard-like patterns. The exhibition takes us on a journey through time through the decades and allows us to understand how Scully's artistic path was transformed by personal tragedies, political developments, and artistic movements.
Find out more via Bucerius Kunst Forum.
Image: Sean Scully, Now, 1986, Sammlung Klein, Eberdingen-Nussdorf © Sean Scully. Photo: Courtesy The Artist
