Sean Scully. Courtsey Sean Scully Studio, New York
Which exhibition or event are you most looking forward to in 2015, and why?
I am making a very interesting exhibition with Sean Rainbird, at the National Gallery of Art in Dublin. This more or less coincides with my 70th birthday. I was born in Dublin in 1945, and Sean Rainbird already made a room of my work in the Tate Gallery, when he was a curator there. This exhibition will be made of five important loans from the Tate Gallery and the Irish Museum of Modern Art plus a line of new big photographs of new roll gates. Sean Rainbird is a great curator, so it is a pleasure to work with him again.
Sean Scully, Wall of Light Heat, 2001. Oil on linen. 108 x 132.25 ins. (274.3 x 335.9 cm.) © Sean Scully
What do you predict will be the most significant development or biggest talking point in art in the year ahead, and why?
If I knew that I would make it, though I’m probably making it already.
Sean Scully , Landline No Place, 2014. Oil on aluminum. 85 x 75 ins. (215.9 x 190.5 cm.) © Sean Scully
Which artist most excites you right now, and why?
Ai Weiwei, my favourite and most important student, soon to be showing at the Royal Academy in London.
Tell us about the project that you are working on/showcasing in 2015.
I am making all the paintings and windows, for Santa Cecilia, which is a perfectly restored 1000-year-old church on Monserrat, outside Barcelona, a cultural heritage site. As a building it is bigger and more important than Matisse’s chapel in Vence, a place I have loved. It opens exactly on my birthday, June 30.
Sean Scully, Diagonal Inset, 1973. Acrylic on canvas. 96 x 96 ins. (243.8 x 243.8 cm.) © Sean Scully
Apart from that, I am touring China with my retrospective, and making another sculpture for the venue in Beijing. It’s the first western artist’s big retrospective to tour China, and you can only say that once.