Long Light. Sean Scully & the Panza Collection at Villa Panza, Varese, through January 6, 2020

“FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano (the National Trust for Italy) presents Long Light. Sean Scully at Villa Panza & the Panza Collection, an exhibition of works by the Irish-born American artist, who is a master of light and colour. Curated by Anna Bernardini, Director of Villa Panza & the Panza Collection, the spaces of the villa in Varese play host to a group of works that confirm Scully’s status as one of the leading figures on the contemporary painting scene.

The exhibition at Villa Panza brings together 80 works produced by Scully between 1970 and 2019 – paintings, works on paper, photographs, sculptures, installations and videos – arranged along a chronological and thematic route that casts the spotlight on certain crucial moments in the development of his output. His poetics, at once expressive and minimalist, and his research into colour, gesture, equilibrium, geometry and light blend in perfectly with the ethical and aesthetic sensibility of Giuseppe Panza, creating an elective affinity that is reflected in the staging of the exhibition, whereby Scully’s works enter into a dialogue with the permanent collection, confirming once again FAI’s desire to offer exhibitions that are intrinsically bound up with the venue and that engage with the architecture of the museum, its interiors and its grounds. The exhibition ends in the park surrounding the villa, and specifically in the conservatory, with a new, site-specific work called Looking Outward, which has become part of the permanent collection.” — FAI

“Harmony is coming out of what you know. It’s affirming what you already know. […] So disharmony is much more interesting and life affirming than harmony, because disharmony eventually, through history, we change into harmony.” — Sean Scully (1996)