Irish by birth, Sean Scully moved with his family to England where he attended Croydon College of Art and studied and taught at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1972 Scully moved to Boston and then to New York in 1973. His early works — complex grids made with contrasting bands of color — reveal an interest in European modernists, especially Mondrian, and in the works of op artists like Riley. Other artists he cites as influential to his vision are Matisse, Pollok and, in particular, Rothko. Situating himself within the modernist tradition, Scully developed a unique language of abstract lines in the 1980s. Using these forms, Scully wished to explore the materiality of paint — light and pigment — to elicit an emotional response from the viewer.

Bridge (2003), a large watercolor in the collection of the Bell Gallery relates to Wall of Light, a series of canvases, pastels, and watercolors the artist began in the early 1980s. Fascinated by the play of light on walls, doorways, and windows, Scully attempted to transfer the range of light effects to canvas and paper. Whereas Scully’s canvases are generally constructed with thick brushstrokes and heavy layers of oil or acrylic paint, his watercolors are subtle and luminous. In Bridge Scully divides the page into three vertical sections, which are further divided by horizontal bands of pigment. The loosely drawn rectangles are painted in subdued shades of brown and gray that recall the tones of asphalt, earth, stone and steel — materials used to construct bridges. In this work, pigment sits on the surface of the paper in smooth fields of color that capture the softness of the wet brush used to transfer the medium from palette to paper. The paper shines through from under the pigment to participate in the composition as the support on which the drawing is made, another type of bridge the title may refer to.

This watercolor was a gift of the artist to Bell Gallery.