|
 Scully, 69, and something of a bear of a man, is delighted
that billionaire Chinese property developer Dai Zhikang will
show some 100 of his artworks at his Shanghai Himalayas Museum
from Nov. 24 until Jan. 25. The collection ranges from early in
his career to the present day, many of them giant canvases
painted with big rectangles of color.
The exhibition is, Scully said, the first big retrospective of
modern abstract Western art ever mounted in China. He is pleased
it is his works that have been selected, and not some of the
perhaps buzzier contemporary art world figures like Jeff Koons
or Damien Hirst.
"My art is meant to be global and that's why I do abstract art,"
he told Reuters.
"But my work is not simply formalist, it's layered with all
kinds of artistic, social and cultural references and this I
think has been very attractive to the Chinese."
It also will be a test of whether Scully's work can crack the
increasingly affluent Chinese art market. His works already are
held by Western collectors and museums.
The exhibition will include early canvases when Scully began
work as a figurative artist, including some land and seascapes,
to the present-day paintings where geometric shapes predominate.
One of the focal points is a huge five-panel installation on
aluminum entitled "Kind of Red" (2013) which Scully has said was
inspired by the Miles Davis jazz album "Kind of Blue" from 1959.
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"By repeating the motif of twinned blocks of reds, greys and blacks
in differing orientations across five separate panels, Scully
establishes an expansive, pulsating rhythm," his gallery, Timothy
Taylor, says.
Scully's friend Bono, the U2 frontman who Scully says has one of his
paintings hanging in his New York City apartment, would no doubt be
pleased by the musical association.
"He calls me 'the bricklayer of the soul' - that's a piece of pop
poetry there," Scully said, adding that he thinks he and Bono
connect because "our aspirations are very similar, we want to go out
into the world and we are very idealistic people".
So how, then, does he square exhibiting his works in China, with its
lack of democracy and poor human rights record.
"History shows us that when you isolate a country you exacerbate the
situation, and if you are allowed in there it means you can
influence the situation," Scully said.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich and Angus MacSwan)
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