Sean Scully’s timeless art: ‘Emotion will always conquer the idea’

William Cook meets the artist who fuses genres while putting the heart and guts back into the work

Houghton Hall: the stately home in Norfolk houses Scully’s artwork (Peter Huggins)

In the leafy grounds of Houghton Hall, a magnificent stately home in Norfolk, the curator Sean Rainbird is guiding a gaggle of art critics around Sean Scully’s latest show. Scully is arguably the world’s leading living abstract artist. His artworks are instantly recognisable: bold geometric paintings (and sculptures) that look like they’ve been created by a grumpy giant.

His detractors say there’s not a lot to them – they say anyone could do them, but when it comes to art there’s only one question that really matters: would you want to hang one of his paintings on your living room wall? For most of us, this question is entirely hypothetical. To buy one of his bigger works, you’d probably need the best part of £1m. However, if I could afford one (and if I had a bigger living room) then yes, of course I would.

At first glance they don’t look like much, but their apparent simplicity is deceptive. There’s actually a lot of depth to them. “That’s really the key to what makes him such an interesting abstract painter,” says Rainbird. The more time you spend with them the more they grow on you. They’re powerful and alluring. They slowly draw you in.