Private Collection, Ireland

Original canvas. The black and grey central section has been inserted. There are some areas of old paint separation to the black pigment in the centre; otherwise in good overall condition with strong passages of impasto throughout. Under ultraviolet light the surface is difficult to interpret conclusively but there appear to be no signs of retouching. Unframed. Please telephone the department on 0207 293 6424 if you have any questions about the present work.
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'My pictures have individual personalities and that's why I sometimes give them the names of people or places. They anchor themselves to things outside of mere art. I'm not making mere paintings. I want them to be more than that. I want them to be humanistically expressive. So it's very important to me that they have titles'.
(The Artist quoted in David Carrier, Sean Scully, London, 2004, p. 107)

Inishkea refers to a group of small islands situated off the coast of the Mullet peninsula in Co. Mayo, Ireland, and relates to Scully's ongoing practice of naming works after specific locations. In 1982, for example, he spent the summer working in Montauk, Long Island at Edward Albee's artists' colony and his smaller works from that period were all named after nearby islands such as Shelter Island, Block and Fire, works which David Carrier has noted 'look like islands surrounded by the ocean' (Carrier, op.cit., p.112).

In contrast to the dark monochrome tones and minimalist handling of his work from the mid to late 1970s and early 1980s such as Fort 3 (1979), Painting for One Place (1979, destroyed) and Catherine (1980), the rich blocks of colour in the present work where each brushstroke is clearly visible, demonstrate the artist's development during the 1980s of a more vibrant and dynamic abstraction. The bright adjacent blocks of colour are enlivened by a complex system of over-painting that gives to each bar a compelling tonal and chromatic intens🍨ity that is at odds with the highly structured composition.