Sean Scully, online lecture for the American Academy in Berlin

26 Apr 2021

Sean Scully, online lecture for the American Academy in Berlin

Sean Scully will be giving an online lecture titled ’Sean Scully: By Hand' on 26 April, 7 pm CET, moderated by Prof. Dr. Dorothea von Hantelmann, Professor of Art and Society at Bard College Berlin. The lecture will take place via Zoom. Registration is possible through the American Academy in Berlin. All registered guests will receive participation instructions prior to the event. 

Sean Scully, online lecture for the American Academy in Berlin

Sean Scully, Windows Pale Yellow, 2021 © Sean Scully

Scully argues that current environmental and public-health crises are directly related to our increasing disconnection from the physical and man-made world. In art, physical mark-making, whether the drawn line or sweeping brushstroke, expresses both human frailty and passion. In this talk, Scully connects these two sentiments by contending that the 'dry, linear thinking' behind conceptual art has detached the natural world from the world of art—which is why that aesthetic has fallen out of favor. Likewise in the world of human industry and praxis: If humans forget they are physical beings who are a part of nature and cannot proceed by rationality alone, they will be cast adrift from an ecosystem of which they are an integral part.