Liliane Tomasko and Sean Scully operate in neighbouring studios in New york city and Munich. Scully was born in Ireland in 1945; Tomasko in Switzerland in 1967. They fulfilled in London and wed in 2007, and both produce abstract art based upon observations from reality. A new joint exhibition at Newlands Home Gallery in Petworth, a market town in the South Downs, provides their paintings side by side.
Regardless of living and collaborating, both artists have their own distinct methods to abstraction. Tomasko begins by recording daily minutes and scenes on a polaroid video camera, then equates the picture to an illustration, and the drawing to a painting. Along the method, she pares back the image, removing recognisable information and slowly edging far from truth with subtle shadows and shifts in focus. Produced on either paper or canvas, her paintings are made up of lines that swoop and curve around vibrant spots of colour. Her brushstrokes are broad, her combination brilliant and extreme. In and amongst the markings are tips of typical family products, from crumpled bedsheets and disposed of clothing to stacks of towels– things we would not generally take note of, however which supply a window onto our lives.
While Tomasko seeks to daily domesticity and universal acts such as sleeping and dreaming, Scully makes use of his individual experience. The male credited with restoring abstract painting is likewise affected by classical Greek architecture and European artists such as Henri Matisse. He divides his canvases into grids of interlocking and layered stripes and squares that stimulate the landscapes of his house nation and the streets of Manhattan. Colour, typically earthy, is thoroughly consisted of within horizontal and vertical bands, like lawn fields surrounded by fences and hedges. Not too thoroughly, however– smears and discolorations keep things fascinating. Paint is scumbled and furrowed and weathered; in locations, it looks dry, in others it’s glossy and apparently damp. The blurred edges of his blocks and types offer the impression that they’re practically pulsing.
The exhibit at Newlands Home Gallery combines Scully’s geometric paintings and Tomasko’s more gestural abstractions. On screen in the UK for the very first time is his Black Square series (2020 ), with dark and shadowy squares superimposed over multicoloured bands of colour, and his more metaphorical Madonna paintings (2018 ). There are his sculptures made from Murano glass, and Tomasko’s video works. The artist couple handle abstraction in a different way, however there’s something their work shares– far from cold and minimalist, it’s filled with energy and sensation.
From the Real: Liliane Tomasko and Sean Scully is at Newlands Home Gallery up until 10 October 2021
