Irish-American abstract artist Sean Scully counts Irish rocker Bono among his pals and collectors. He wouldn't be unhappy if some of China's 1.4 billion people also took a shine to his art being displayed at a retrospective in Shanghai later this month.
Scully, 69, and something of a bear of a man, is delighted that billionaire Chinese property developer Dai Zhikang will show some 100 of his artworks at his Shanghai Himalayas Museum from Monday until Jan. 25. The collection ranges from early in his career to the present day, many of them giant canvases painted with big rectangles of color.
The exhibition is, Scully said, the first big retrospective of modern abstract Western art ever mounted in China. He is pleased it is his works that have been selected, and not some of the perhaps buzzier contemporary art world figures like Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst.