This exhibition presents a new series of Sean Scully's photographs "Walls of Aran" (2005) alongside a single work by Alberto Giacometti "Tete de Diego au col roule", a stunning portrait head of his brother Diego from 1954.
Sean Scully & Alberto Giacometti
“On the left is Giacometti, if not the greatest sculptor of the 20th century, in the
top five of greatest sculptors of the 20th century, obviously Italian. He made
figures out of bronze and plaster, a very obsessive artist like myself, not a
particularly experimental artist… he ended up making obsessive figures that stand
like ragged sentinels facing time and all the elements of nature and human history
that are thrown at them. So they represent in a sense, what remains.
On the right is a hut from the Aran Islands, Inis Meain, a photograph taken by
myself. I have been encouraged lately to assume the vanity of a photographer and
this photograph is in a book that’s published very recently of my photographs. Again
it also represents in a sense what remains. It’s a hostile environment… This is a
hut for either staying in or keeping things in. It has a similar stoic personality
to the sculpture on the left, which of course is an artwork and therefore much more
strangely expressive. This is a functional object, However in the walls of Aran you
will notice each wall has its own personality and was made – in a sense, like a
mountain, more vertical, more geometric, rounder, smaller and so on. The wall itself
is a question of placing stones so they don’t come apart, using gravity to
withstand the wind. Both of them in a way express a kind of loneliness. So both of
them are in a sense a testament to what remains, even though one is art and the
other is not particularly art.”
[Sean Scully, extracted from a lecture given at Limerick University, 14 October 2003]
This exhibition presents a new series of Sean Scully’s photographs 'Walls of Aran'
(2005) alongside a single work by Alberto Giacometti 'Tete de Diego au col roule', a
stunning portrait head of his brother Diego from 1954.
Opening july 14, 2007
Ingleby Gallery
6 Carlton Terrace - Edinburgh
Free admission