Myth and the American Story of Abstract Expressionism

Two Reflections on Sean Scully

Authors

  • James Dowthwaite Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
  • Natalie Erkel Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18422/77-2549

Keywords:

Sean Scully, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Mark Rothko, Abstract Expressionism

Abstract

Sean Scully is a cosmopolitan artist. An Irish-American citizen who grew up in the United Kingdom, and who has spent considerable amounts of time across the world, his work — most often characterised as Abstract Expressionism — can still be said to be American in its aesthetics. There was a recent retrospective of his work at the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg. James Dowthwaite and Natalie Erkel, as contributors to this volume and residents of the city, went to the exhibition.

Author Biographies

James Dowthwaite, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

James Dowthwaite is Junior Professor for English Literature and Culture at the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz. He is author of Ezra Pound and 20th Century Theories of Language: Faith with the Word (Routledge, 2025) and Aesthetic Criticism: An Introduction (Routledge, 2026), and has published widely on modernism, decadence, aestheticism, and symbolism. He is co-organiser of the Germany-based network Modernism, Aestheticism, and Decadence Studies. His poems and essays have appeared, amongst other places, in Acumen, AJAP/Review, The Fortnightly Review, The High Window, Literary Imagination, PN Review, Strix, and Poetry Salzburg Review. He is an assistant editor at the NASJ.

Natalie Erkel, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB)

Natalie Erkel, a dual German-American citizen, has been a PhD student and research assistant (wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) at Bochum University (RUB) since 2022. She graduated from high school in both the United States (Loyola High School, Minnesota, 2009) and Germany (Gymnasium Antonianum Vechta, Lower Saxony, 2011), and earned two master’s degrees from the University of Göttingen: one in Education (French and English) and one in North American Studies and English Philology in 2022; during her studies, she was awarded a scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes) and she taught various courses at the University of Göttingen, including English didactics, U.S. cultural history, short fiction, and academic writing. Her current research and teaching focus on feminism, gender studies, Transcendentalism, manifestos, poetry, Afrofuturism, and speculative fiction. In October 2025, she will join the DFG-funded research group FOR 5710: Infrastructure: Aesthetics and Supply.

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Published

2025-10-15

How to Cite

James Dowthwaite, and N. Erkel. “Myth and the American Story of Abstract Expressionism: Two Reflections on Sean Scully”. New American Studies Journal: A Forum, vol. 77, Oct. 2025, https://doi.org/10.18422/77-2549.

Issue

Vol. 77 (2025): Aesthetics

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 New American Studies Journal: A Forum

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.