Seán Scully: 'If you don’t compromise, you will end up with war' 

The celebrated Irish artist is in the midst of a series of exhibitions around the world. He speaks from his New York home on his new work, America's gun culture, and why he's going to continue with his plans for a show in Moscow 

Seán Scully  currently has a major exhibition in Philadelphia, and will open a new exhibition in Dublin later in May. (Picture by Joseph Hu. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art)

Seán Scully is nothing if not industrious. The Irish abstract painter, best-known for his epic compositions of blocks and stripes of colour, regularly mounts up to a dozen international exhibitions a year. Last month alone, his solo exhibition Song of Colours opened in Neuss, Germany, while The Shape of Ideas, a massive 50-year retrospective, began a four-month run at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania. A second retrospective, Passenger, will tour Poland, Italy and Croatia for much of the year, while an exhibition called Square opens at the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin on May 17.

Scully will be 77 in June, and the workload has taken its toll, specifically on his back, which has required a number of surgeries. He is speaking to me via Zoom on his mobile phone while reclining on the new sofa in his studio in Tappan, New York.